:;  I  A 


JOHN  FOSTER  FRASER 


\Y 


RUSSIA   OF  TO-DAY 


RUSSIA  OF  TO-DAY 


BY 

JOHN    FOSTER   FRASER 


WITH   FORTY-FOUR    PLATES 
FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS 


New  York 

FUNK  AND  WAGNALLS    COMPANY 
1915 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

1.  THE  SOUL  OF  RUSSIA      ....  1 

2.  PETROGRAD  IN  WAR  TIME       ...  17 

3.  TEETOTAL  RUSSIA 32 

4.  THE  FIGHT  FOR  TRADE   ....  44 

5.  How   GERMANY  CAPTURED   THE   RUSSIAN 

MARKET     ......  56 

6.  EXPERT  ADVICE  TO  ENGLAND           .         .  70 

7.  AN  IDLER  IN  THE  CAPITAL       ...  80 

8.  THE  RUSSIAN  MAN  OF  BUSINESS      .         .  94 

9.  THE  RUSSIANS 102 

10.  ALIEN  RUSSIANS      .....  119 

11.  Moscow  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS         .         .  136 

12.  THE  ENGLISH  IN  Moscow  AND  SOME  OTHERS  157 

13.  A  RUSSIAN  COTTON  MILL         .          .          .  177 

14.  CO-OPERATION  AND  CO-PARTNERSHIP           .  191 

15.  THE  FOUNDLING  HOSPITAL  OF  Moscow  204 


2046816 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOE 

16.  SOCIAL  LIFE 213 

17.  EDUCATION     ......  227 

18.  A  LAND  OF  MANY  RELIGIONS  .         .         .  240 

19.  INTELLECTUAL  AND  ARTISTIC    .         .         .  250 

20.  THE  MAN  ON  THE  LAND           .         .         .  260 

21.  POTENTIALITIES        .....  272 

22.  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE  ?           ...  281 
INDEX     .  291 


LIST   OF   PLATES 

Shrine  at  Entrance  to  the  Kremlin,  Moscow  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Petrograd 8 

The  Czar  and  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas         .         .  12 

A  Russian  Policeman    ......  18 

The  Czar's  Daughters  Roller-skating  on  the  Royal 

Yacht 24 

Typical  Street  Scene,  Petrograd  ....  28 

The  Winter  Palace,  Petrograd  ....  32 
The  Czar  Tasting  the  Sailors'  Soup  on  Board  the 

Royal  Yacht  .  .  .  '  .  «  .  40 

Assassination  Church  in  Petrograd  ...  54 

A  Street  Scene 64 

St.  Isaac's  Cathedral,  Petrograd  ....  80 

Beggars 82 

A  Troika  .  .  .  .  '.  V  '.  *'  .  86 

The  Czarevitch  and  his  Boy  Friends  Boating  .  90 

The  Nevski  Prospect,  Petrograd  '  '.  '  .  .  96 

Band  of  Wandering  Workmen  .  .  ''.  ~>f  '.  104 

Moudjiks  ..  ".  /:.,;.  '.  V  '.  ""-"i  '.' .  112 

Repaired  Whilst  You  Wait  .  V"  ""•:..  .  .  128 

Moscow        .ci,  ,:.,;.         *         ,  •     ..v        .136 
vii 


viii  LIST   OF  PLATES 

FACING    PAGE 

Moscow  in  Winter         ......     140 

Entrance  to  the  Kremlin,  Moscow          .         .         .     144 
Soldiers  Drilling  in  the  Kremlin,  Moscow       .         .148 
A  Chapel  for  Prayer  in  a  Moscow  Street        .         .154 
Church  of  St.  Basil,  Moscow  (General  View)  .     160 

Church  of  St.  Basil,  Moscow          ....     162 

In  the  Red  Square,  Moscow  ....     166 

A  Street  Corner  Shrine 170 

The  Author  in  the  Kremlin,  Moscow     .          .          .174 

The  Moscow  Markets 176 

The  Town  of  Orechovo-Zouevo  .  .  .  .182 
Leaving  the  Works  of  Orechovo-Zouevo  .  .  188 
Drawn  Thread  Work  by  Women  ....  198 

A  Toy-seller 202 

The  Foundling  Hospital,  Moscow  ....     208 

The  Depth  of  Winter   .         ...         .         .         .     216 

A  Datcha     ........     222 

Peasant  Girls        .         .         .         ,  ,         .     230 

An  Ikon       ........     244 

A  Typical  Russian  Village  .  .  <  .  .  262 
The  Winter  Fuel  .  .  ,  .  .  .  266 

The  First  of  the  Harvest      .         ,  . ?       .     270 

Interior  of  a  Russian  Cottage        .         .         ...     272 

A  Russian  Fair 280 

A  Captured  German  Gun      .         .         ,  284 


RUSSIA    OF    TO-DAY 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    SOUL   OF   RUSSIA 

PETROGRAD  is  the  head  of  Russia,  and  Moscow  is 
the  heart  of  it.  But  the  soul  of  Russia  spreadeth 
throughout  the  land  and  is  not  to  be  measured. 

Russia  is  Russia.  That  is  not  a  cheap  truism. 
It  is  one  of  those  big  facts  that  the  foreigner  does 
not  often  remember.  For  he  goes  to  the  country 
soaked  with  his  British  and  other  prejudices,  stuffed 
with  conceit  that  he  and  his  race  own  the  ark  of 
righteousness  and,  when  he  finds  other  people  doing 
things  in  a  way  different  from  his  own,  he  concludes 
the  other  people  must  be  wrong. 

Nations  have  characteristics  like  individuals. 
A  black-haired  Englishman  does  not  exclaim  what 
a  fool  the  other  fellow  is  to  have  fair  hair  ;  he  accepts 
there  must  be  fair  hair.  And  as  the  Russian  mind 
is  not  at  all  like  the  British  mind,  as  the  people  are 
of  different  race  and  as  different  passions  consume 
them,  though  we  cannot  help  judging  Russia  from 
a  British  standpoint,  it  is  rather  like  criticising  a 
cow  for  not  being  a  horse. 


2  RUSSIA  OF  TO-DAY 

I  went  to  Russia  during  the  days  of  war  to  write 
about  the  people  because  folk  at  home  want  to 
know  about  them.  But  just  as  I  remember  the 
time  when  Englishmen  preferred  to  believe  sombre 
things  about  Russia  there  is  more  than  a  tendency 
now-times  to  tip  the  scale  the  other  way,  and  believe 
Russians  are  the  most  wonderful  people,  making 
noble  sacrifices  for  the  nation's  weal,  an  example 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Rather  nonsense.  The 
Russians  never  were  as  black  as  they  used  to  be 
painted,  and  even  to-day  they  are  a  good  deal  lower 
than  the  angels. 

The  Russian  is  calm  over  the  war.  He  is  not 
quite  sure  what  it  is  all  about,  but  when  the  young 
men  are  told  to  go  and  fight  they  go  by  the  million. 
They  are  brave ;  but  the  German  guns  are  big  and 
powerful. 

Yet  the  Russians  are  not  a  fighting  people. 
They  are  not  arrogant.  They  are  kindly.  Amongst 
the  educated  classes  there  would  be  much  more 
interest  in  a  new  opera  than  in  the  invention  of  a 
gun  which  will  throw  a  shell  forty  miles.  They 
love  their  country,  but  without  chauvinism.  They 
are  sure  of  the  destiny  of  their  land — and  it  is  different 
from  the  trade  thirst  that  animates  nations  which 
consider  themselves  more  enlightened. 

The  Russian,  cultured  and  travelled,  speaking 
several  languages,  does  not  bluff  himself  that  he  is  the 
equal  of  Britons,  or  Germans,  or  Americans,  in  the 
mechanical  arts.  No  people  I  know  are  so  childishly, 
lovingly  frank  in  the  recognition  of  their  own  short- 


THE  SOUL  OF  RUSSIA  3 

comings.  But  they  possess  something  which  they 
would  not  sacrifice  for  all  the  mechanical  skill  in 
the  world — a  soul,  imagination,  a  deep  love  of  beauty 
in  sound  and  the  written  word.  They  are  mystics  ; 
they  are  dreamers.  That  is  the  Russian  tempera- 
ment, provided  by  Providence. 

A  strange,  weird,  fascinating  land  of  extremes  is 
Russia.  The  Tartars  from  the  East  gave  it  a  system 
of  government ;  the  Greeks  from  the  South  gave 
it  Christianity  ;  it  gathered  modernism  in  thought 
from  the  Germanic  races,  followed  by  a  flood  of 
affection  for  Latin  elegance,  and  then  back  it  went 
to  Germanic  influence  again.  The  nation  with  the 
most  autocratic  government  in  the  world  is  yet  the 
most  democratic,  not  as  an  outcome  of  politics  but 
because  such  is  a  Slav  condition  of  mind. 

Russians  lack  strong  will-power.  Turgenev  felt 
this  and  made  one  of  his  characters  exclaim,  "  We 
Slavs  are  badly  off  for  that  commodity  and  we 
grovel  before  it.  ...  We  want  a  master  in  everything 
and  everywhere.  As  a  rule,  this  master  is  a  living 
person ;  sometimes  it  is  some  so-called  tendency 
which  gains  authority  over  us."  Russia  is  a  land 
where  the  one-eyed  is  happy.  If  you  look  at  things 
with  both  eyes,  and  peer  below  as  well  as  look  above, 
as  you  increase  in  knowledge  so  you  increase  in 
sorrow.  Russia  owes  more  to  foreign  countries 
for  her  development  than  any  other  nation.  Her 
trade  was  first  opened  up  by  the  English.  The  glory 
of  the  Empire,  the  Kremlin  at  Moscow,  was  designed 
by  Italians.  German  influence  has  always  been 


4  RUSSIA  OF  TO-DAY 

strong  and  Peter  the  Great  was  obsessed  with  am- 
bition to  make  Russia  western  and  drop  all  its  old 
Muscovite  characteristics.  Petrograd  owes  its 
existence  to  foreign  example.  The  architect  of 
St.  Isaac's  was  Montferand,  and  French  artists 
painted  the  pictures.  The  monument  of  Peter  was 
designed  by  Falconet.  A  French  architect  built 
Peterhof.  Frenchmen  from  Alsace  and  Lyons  started 
cotton  and  silk  centres  at  Moscow.  The  railway 
between  Petrograd  and  Moscow  was  mainly  con- 
structed by  French  engineers.  The  Universities 
have  been  framed  on  German  models.  In  manu- 
facturing, Russia  has  sat  at  the  feet  of  England  ;  she 
has  taken  her  science  and  her  methods  of  commerce 
from  Germany ;  France  has  been  her  pattern  in 
the  arts. 

This  is  not  due  to  Russia  being  deficient  in 
originality  and  invention.  It  is  due  to  the  lack  of 
will-power.  She  has  the  ability  but  not  the  deter- 
mination to  carry  a  thing  through.  There  is  nothing 
the  Russians  cannot  do  splendidly,  but  they  slacken 
off  unless  inspired  by  a  leader.  The  Russian  can 
see  as  clearly  as  any  Western.  He  knows  that  certain 
things  ought  to  be  done ;  he  starts  to  do  them,  and 
the  chances  are  that,  with  noble  intentions,  he  will 
stop  just  short  of  doing  them.  It  is  his  genius, 
but  short  measured,  which  makes  him  at  once  the 
most  delightful  and  the  most  exasperating  man  in 
the  world. 

The  American  workman  thinks  himself  as  good 
as  his  boss  and  he  isn't  taking  off  his  hat  to  "  any 


THE   SOUL    OF    RUSSIA  5 

darned  other  fellow."  The  Russian  boss  never 
thinks  himself  any  better  than  his  employee,  and  he 
always  takes  off  his  hat  to  his  workmen.  The  talk 
between  a  magnate  and  a  moudjik  is  with  the  easy 
familiarity  of  equals — not  due  to  these  democratic 
times  when  rank  must  not  expect  subserviency  from 
labour,  but  because  it  always  has  been  so  amongst 
Russians.  There  is  no  shyness  about  poor  relations. 
The  Russians  are  tremendously  fond  of  family 
gatherings  and  feasting,  and  there  you  will  see  the 
man  of  high  official  position,  in  his  uniform  and 
wearing  his  orders,  giving  the  kiss  of  greeting  to  his 
cousin  from  the  steppes,  who  has  long  hair  and  top 
boots  and  who  has  never  worn  a  white  linen  collar 
in  his  life. 

In  saying  the  Russians  are  children,  I  have  got 
the  right  description.  We  hear  stories  of  peculation, 
of  misappropriation  of  funds,  of  large  secret  com- 
missions in  Government  contracts,  and  for  all  I 
know  to  the  contrary  the  stories  may  be  perfectly 
true.  But  I  have  yet  to  visit  a  country  where  there 
are  not  hundreds  of  flies  around  the  golden  honey 
pot.  I  daresay  there  are  just  as  many  "  grafters  " 
and  "  boodle  "  hunters  in  Russia  as  there  are  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  mighty  mistake,  however, 
to  imagine  that  every  official  in  Russia  has  his  price. 
There  are  gentlemen  in  Russia  just  as  honourable  as 
there  are  in  England,  and  the  generous  outpouring 
of  our  own  people  to  assist  those  who  have  been 
stricken  by  the  war  has  its  counterpart  all  over 
Russia.  Heaven  defend  us  ;  and  let  us  judge  a 


6  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

country  by  its  virtues  and  not  by  its  lapses,  for, 
after  all,  it  is  the  good  men  of  a  nation  who  mould 
its  destiny,  and  not  the  others. 

Yes,  the  Russians  are  like  children.  But  children 
with  wistfulness  in  their  eyes  and  tears  coming 
quick  after  the  laughter.  Most  of  the  land  is  grey 
and  flat,  and  melancholy  skies  hang  low,  and  to  the 
very  marrow  of  their  bones  the  people  are  religious — 
not  as  we  use  the  word,  but  there  is  a  devoutness, 
a  feeling  of  awe,  a  wonder  stretching  over  a  kind 
of  Oriental  fatalism,  which  is  often  utterly  incom- 
prehensible to  us,  especially  when  we  contrast  it 
with  some  of  their  lives. 

I  once  knew  a  great  Russian  musician.  By  our 
standards  he  was  a  hypocrite,  for  he  was  openly 
lax  in  morals  ;  and  yet  he  was  one  of  the  most  devout 
men  I  ever  met.  He  was  emotional ;  he  gave  what- 
ever he  had  in  his  pocket  to  those  who  needed 
help ;  but  his  method  of  life  would  shock  any 
respectable  English  provincial  town.  The  Russian 
has  ideals,  but  in  many  cases  he  does  not  place 
chastity  so  high  as  we  of  England  pretend  to 
place  it. 

It  is  this  emotionalism,  idealism,  running  right 
through  the  Russian  character,  that  makes  one 
realise  that  until  the  leopard  changes  his  spots, 
the  Russian  will  never  become  a  handicraftsman, 
a  scientific  mechanician,  an  astute  manipulator 
of  the  money  market  like  his  brother  in  the  more 
western  countries.  He  is  romantic  and  introspective. 
Russian  literature,  Russian  music,  Russian  art  are 


THE   SOUL   OF    RUSSIA  7 

individual,  the  growth  of  the  soil,  eerie,  with  a  kind 
of  rapturous  sadness  about  them. 

The  Russian  loves  good  things  to  eat.  No 
land  provides  such  wholesome  fare,  as  all  travellers 
will  corroborate.  He  is  generous  to  foolish  prodi- 
gality, especially  to  strangers,  not  because  he  expects 
any  return,  but  he  joys  in  stuffing  you  with  the  most 
extravagant  dinners  just  because  you  are  a  stranger. 
When  he  is  very,  very  happy  he  wants  to  kiss  you  a 
good  whacking,  resounding  kiss  on  the  lips,  which 
is  uncomfortable.  He  will  spend  more  than  he  can 
afford  in  hospitality,  for  it  is  his  nature  to  give. 
He  never  "  blows  "  about  his  wonderful  country. 
And  it  is  wonderful  in  its  potentialities  for  food 
stuffs,  a  sort  of  United  States  and  Canada  in  one. 

Particularly  does  he  hope  for  a  better  condition 
of  affairs  in  Russia  as  the  outcome  of  the  war.  His 
admiration  of  British  institutions  is  abounding. 
But  that  ever  Russia  will  assimilate  English  conditions 
I  don't  believe.  Because  of  the  way  I  have  been 
reared  I  naturally  think  English  methods  are  best. 
They  might  even  be  best  for  Russia.  But  the 
Russian  character  is  so  different  from  our  own  ;  the 
Russian  looks  on  life  and  the  great  verities  with 
such  different  eyes  from  ourselves,  that  honestly 
I  think — though  mutual  knowledge  will  develop 
better  understanding  —  the  likelihood  of  Russia 
adopting  British  ways  is  distant  indeed.  For  the 
Russian  is  a  Slav,  poetical,  quixotical,  impetuous 
and  also  given  to  moody  meditation.  That  should 
never  be  forgotten. 


RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Since  Europe  got  on  fire  there  has  sprung  up  a 
movement  which  may  be  called  "  Russia  for  the 
Russians."  That  may  be  an  awakening  of  the 
people's  consciousness.  There  is  a  belief  amongst 
many  Muscovites  that  their  country  has  been  exploited 
for  the  benefit  of  the  foreigners.  Well,  the  foreigner 
— mainly  the  German — though  his  language  is  now 
forbidden  within  the  realm  of  the  Czar — has  made 
a  good  thing  out  of  Russia.  There  is  scarcely  a 
manufactured  article,  through  the  whole  gamut  of 
usefulness,  that  is  not  imported  from  abroad.  I 
wonder  what  would  have  been  the  condition  of 
Russia  to-day  if  a  century  ago  a  ring  fence  had  been 
put  round  Muscovy,  and  it  had  been  a  hermit  nation  ? 
To  write  of  things  near  at  hand  I  do  not  think  I 
would  have  had  an  electric  light  on  my  table  as 
I  scribble,  nor  a  telephone  at  my  elbow  ;  nor  would 
electric  tramcars  scurry  past  my  hotel  clanging 
after  the  New  York  manner.  Nor,  when  I  was 
having  tea  at  a  Petrograd  cafe"  would  the  band 
have  been  playing  American  ragtime  and  the  ladies 
be  dressed  in  exactly  the  same  manner,  with  those 
saucy  little  hats  I  admire  so  much,  as  the  ladies 
I  saw  in  London  a  few  weeks  previously.  Without 
the  inflow  of  "  civilisation "  Russia,  dependent 
on  itself,  would  have  been  much  the  same  as  it  was 
in  the  eighteenth  century. 

As  I  walked  along  the  Nevski  I  seemed  to  be 
racing  past  everybody,  though  my  pace  is  ordinary. 
The  Russian  has  an  Eastern  dislike  to  hurry.  When 
you  want  something  quickly  the  word  the  servant 


THE    SOUL    OF    RUSSIA  9 

uses,  which  is  as  near  as  he  can  get  to  immediately, 
is  cechas,  which  means  "  within  the  hour."  In  busi- 
ness talk  he  "  wanders  all  over  the  shop,"  and  if 
you  are  determined  to  keep  him  to  the  point  he  gets 
confused.  He  can  idle  time  over  his  tea  and  cigar- 
ettes— he  will  puff  away  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  a  day 
— as  only  an  Oriental  can.  His  philosophy  is  summed 
up  in  the  word  nitchevo — what  does  it  matter  ? 

He  has  good  digestion  and  it  waits  keenly  on 
appetite.  He  is  fond  of  women,  and  the  Russian 
woman  can  be  charming.  He  keeps  late  hours,  and 
though  there  is  strictness  during  war  time,  the 
busy  time  of  restaurants  is  after  midnight.  In 
the  middle  of  the  year  there  is  no  real  night  at  Petro- 
grad,  just  a  waning  to  twilight  about  twelve  o'clock. 
The  beautiful  thing  is  to  get  into  a  droshki  about 
one  o'clock,  drive  across  the  Neva,  make  for  the 
islands  and  watch  the  sun  rise  through  the  woods 
and  over  the  lakes — hundreds  do  it — and  then  you 
sip  tea  by  the  waterside  and  talk  poetry  like  a 
Russian  about  the  blue  of  the  sky  at  the  birth 
of  the  day  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  And 
when  you  drive  back  and  the  air  is  broken  with  song 
and  the  sunbeams  strike  the  slim  gilded  tower  of  the 
dread  Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul,  where  they  put 
the  naughty  children  of  the  Little  White  Father, 
as  the  Emperor  is  called,  you  know  there  is  a  war  ; 
but  it  is  such  a  long,  long  way  off. 

One  day  you  are  thrilled  by  the  stalwart  physique 
of  the  men,  and  the  same  evening  you  are  afraid 
the  race  is  decadent.  And  over  everything  Russia 


io  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

does  is  a  film  of  the  mysterious.  As  you  try  to 
understand  the  unknown  quality  it  is  like  gazing 
into  a  glass  darkly.  All  the  western  nations  have 
their  attributes,  farsightedness,  capacity,  efficiency. 
To-day  Russia  cannot  be  said  to  have  any  of  these 
things.  But  Russia  has  a  soul. 

So  it  is  that  the  foreigner  finds  difficulty  in 
correctly  describing  the  attitude  of  the  Russian 
people  towards  the  war.  At  first  you  get  the  idea 
that  it  is  one  of  indifference  ;  then  you  feel  that  it 
is  one  of  fatalistic  optimism,  for  the  Russian  has  a 
tinge  of  fatalism  running  along  the  threads  of  his 
mind  ;  and  then  you  are  sure  that  it  is  one  of  restraint. 
Maybe  the  real  attitude  of  Russia's  millions  is  one 
of  acquiescence. 

We  know  how  the  other  nations  are  waging 
battle;  Germany  with  arrogance,  France  with  dash, 
Britain  with  doggedness,  Italy  with  high  spirits. 
Belgium  with  patience.  It  is  impossible  to  label 
Russia.  You  may  know  the  Russian  temperament, 
how  emotional  it  is  ;  but  in  these  days  it  is  emotional 
only  one  way.  Without  many  words  being  spoken 
one  felt  the  depression  when  the  news  came  up  to 
Petrograd  that  the  Russians  were  coming  back 
over  the  Carpathians,  so  dearly  won  in  the  snows 
of  last  winter ;  that  the  army  was  retiring  through 
Galicia,  and  that  fortresses  which  had  been  taken 
from  the  enemy  had  to  be  evacuated.  It  was  the 
same  when  Poland  was  yielded  to  the  enemy.  The 
Russian  did  not  minimise  the  misfortune ;  he 
accepted  it  with  lowered  spirits. 


THE    SOUL   OF    RUSSIA  n 

But  Russia  has  had  her  hours  of  victory,  occasions 
which,  if  other  nations  had  reaped  the  same  triumph, 
would  have  made  Berlin  hysterical,  Paris  rapturous, 
and  would  have  covered  London  with  bunting  and 
smiles.  The  Russian  does  not  frantically  rejoice 
over  the  smashing  blow  given  to  the  enemy.  He 
acquiesces,  but  without  elation.  He  is  sure  of  the 
bravery  of  his  countrymen  in  the  field,  so  sure  that 
there  is  no  need  to  accentuate  it  by  heroics. 

Russia  is  not  a  nation  ;  it  is  a  religion.  You 
miss  the  national  spirit,  the  fervent  patriotism,  but 
you  see  the  deep  religious  feeling.  And  in  his  soul, 
though  conscious  of  the  frailties  of  his  people,  the 
Russian  believes  in  the  future  of  Holy  Russia  as 
firmly  as  he  believes  there  are  saints  in  heaven. 
And  this  demeanour,  which  looks  like  indifference,  is 
just  acceptance  of  the  rise  and  fall  in  the  fortunes  of 
battle  because  he  is  confident  that  Russia  must  win. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  go  to  their  deaths 
or  are  maimed  for  life.  Millions  may  have  to  die,  but 
Russia  will  win.  That  is  his  unshakable  faith.  He 
regrets  shortage  of  munitions  ;  he  laments  that  it 
is  his  misfortune  to  be  slow  ;  he  wishes  some  officials 
who  have  the  placing  of  contracts  would  think  less 
about  the  commissions  they  are  to  receive  and  more 
about  the  expedition  of  supplies  ;  he  grieves  over  the 
bloodshed,  and  wishes  that  the  world  were  happier  ; 
he  admits  the  sacrifices  that  are  necessary,  but 
Russia — how  can  mighty  Russia  be  despoiled  ?  And 
there  is  something  impressive,  a  great  deal  that 
is  inspiring,  in  a  people  feeling  like  this. 


12  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  Government  calls  for  the  reservists  to  leave 
their  workshops  and  offices  and  go  under  arms.  They 
go  without  a  murmur,  not  with  cheers  but  with 
prayers.  I  have  seen  our  own  lads  march  through 
the  streets  of  London  occasionally  given  a  hurrah, 
but  often  rousing  no  more  than  the  pleased  but 
casual  interest  of  spectators  on  the  kerbstone.  I 
have  never  heard  Russians  cheer  their  soldiers  when 
off  to  the  battle-front.  But  I  have  seen  thousands 
of  them  standing  silent,  the  men  bareheaded,  mutter- 
ing their  prayers,  and  making  the  sign  of  the  Cross. 
The  Russian  soldier  has  no  equivalent  to  "It's  a 
Long  Way  to  Tipperary."  He  sings  as  he  marches, 
but  it  is  a  hymn. 

Just  as  in  England,  everybody  in  Russia  is  anxious 
to  help.  Of  course  there  are  the  society  butterflies 
who  imagine  they  are  "  doing  their  bit  "  by  purchas- 
ing a  couple  of  tickets  for  a  charity  concert ;  but  at 
the  other  end  of  the  scale  are  the  great  mass  of 
people  helping.  There  are  thousands  of  committees 
all  over  the  country.  In  little  towns,  never  heard  of 
in  England  before,  work  is  being  done  to  soften  the 
rigours  of  war  to  Ivan. 

But  I  never  saw  women  knitting  or  sewing  in 
public,  as  in  England.  Though  there  may  have  been 
cases,  I  did  not  see  nor  did  I  hear  of  many  private 
individuals  in  Russia  lending  their  motor  cars  so  that 
the  crippled  fellows  out  of  hospital  might  be  taken 
for  a  drive.  I  have,  however,  seen  squads  of  lame 
men  hobbling  along  the  streets  under  the  care  of 
nurses  and  sometimes  standing  in  the  rain,  leaning 


THE   SOUL   OF    RUSSIA  13 

on  their  crutches  and  sticks,  waiting  to  get  back 
to  hospital  by  tramcar.  This  is  not  because  the 
Russian  is  callous  ;  it  is  simply  that  he  acquiesces 
in  whatever  is.  He  acquiesced  with  scarcely  a  mur- 
mur in  being  made  compulsorily  teetotal.  If  the 
Emperor  directed  that  all  private  motor  cars  should 
be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  injured,  there  is  not 
a  lady  in  the  land  who  would  whimper  ;  she  would 
recognise  it  as  the  perfectly  right  thing  to  do. 

Scarcely  anything  beyond  the  actual  conduct  of 
the  war  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Government.  The 
Zemstovs  (call  them  County  Councils),  the  munici- 
palities, and  almost  as  many  associations  as  in  Eng- 
land are  all  at  work.  In  England  are  Government 
military  hospitals,  maintained  out  of  State  funds. 
Every  hospital  in  Russia  where  the  wounded  are 
cared  for — and  there  are  thousands  of  them — is 
kept  out  of  other  funds.  All  the  local  governing 
authorities  throughout  the  country  have  raised 
money  to  go  into  a  central  fund  for  the  upkeep  of 
hospitals.  Numerous  citizens  at  their  own  cost 
have  established  small  hospitals  in  private  houses 
with  from  six  to  thirty  beds.  The  Government  has 
no  concern  about  separation  allowances ;  each 
district  looks  after  the  wives  and  children  of  men 
who  have  gone  to  the  front. 

My  investigations  lead  me  to  conclude  there  is 
not  a  town  throughout  Russia  which  has  not  hospitals, 
according  to  its  capabilities,  and  all  administered 
independently  of  Government  control.  The  way 
every  municipality  said,  "We  will  care  for  a  thousand ; 


14  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

we  will  look  after  a  hundred  ;  we  are  sorry  we  can 
only  deal  with  forty,"  is  magnificent.  Besides, 
there  is  the  provision  of  private  hospitals.  En- 
thusiasm sometimes  provokes  one  to  exaggeration ; 
but  I  do  not  think  I  am  writing  more  than  I  should 
in  saying  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  single 
wealthy  Russian  family  that  is  not  responsible  for  a 
private  hospital  of  some  sort.  The  only  thing 
against  the  plan  is  that  some  hospitals  are  better 
equipped  and  the  invalids  have  more  comforts ; 
but  generosity  is  behind  them  all. 

Then  there  is  the  work  of  the  Russian  Red  Cross, 
at  the  head  of  which  is  the  Dowager  Empress.  For 
years  there  have  been  impositions  on  railway  tickets, 
theatre  tickets,  and  such  things,  raising  money  for 
the  Red  Cross.  If  ladies  cannot  help  in  any  other 
way,  they  can  go  about  with  a  tin  box  and  appeal 
to  everybody  in  the  streets,  on  tramcars,  in  hotel 
corridors,  to  contribute.  I  had  not  been  in  the  train 
for  half-an-hour  after  entering  Russian  territory 
before  there  was  a  tap  at  the  door  of  my  coupe 
and  I  was  invited  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  Red 
Cross. 

Long  before  the  war  came  along  the  Red  Cross 
was  doing  a  great  work.  Further  than  providing 
medicine  and  caring  for  the  poor,  it  exercised  great 
power  in  improving  housing  conditions.  There  are 
thousands  of  sisters  of  mercy  now  working  for  the 
Red  Cross,  daughters  of  the  Imperial  household, 
daughters  of  Russia's  nobility,  all  giving  their  services 
and  working  close  up  to  the  firing  line  in  attending 


THE   SOUL   OF   RUSSIA  15 

the  wounded  or  in  the  hospitals  throughout  the 
country.  Right  in  the  arena  of  war  the  Red  Cross 
has  forty  base  hospitals  and  seventy  other  hospitals, 
besides  over  twenty  sections  right  on  the  edge  of 
the  firing  line,  and  something  like  forty  thousand  beds 
— though  cases  are  moved  away  from  the  fighting 
region  as  soon  as  possible.  There  are  sections  devoted 
to  seeing  to  the  general  health  of  the  troops,  cleanliness 
and  sanitation,  and  I  could  give  a  catalogue  of  the 
supply  stations  and  the  millions  of  yards  of  dressings 
and  the  tons  of  medicines  which  would  be  striking 
but  unrememberable. 

The  point  is  that  the  stupendous  work  of  mercy 
— there  are  nearly  a  thousand  persons  employed 
continuously  in  the  work  of  distribution  at  the  head 
depot — is  being  accomplished  not  out  of  Government 
funds,  but  by  the  contributions  of  the  millions  of 
people  in  Russia.  There  are  special  schools  where 
young  women  intending  to  help  are  trained.  There 
is  sewing  going  on  in  the  hut  of  the  moudjik  and  in 
the  palace  of  the  Empress.  And  this  work,  com- 
plicated, detailed,  requiring  immense  organisation, 
is  being  done  by  the  women  of  Russia. 

Sometimes  in  commercial  matters  we  are  apt  to 
accuse  the  Russians  of  being  lackadaisical,  loose 
in  method,  and  deficient  in  initiative  ;  but  in  the 
labours  of  the  Red  Cross  there  is  evidence  that  the 
Russian  power  of  organisation  is  latent,  and  it  only 
requires  such  an  emergency  to  awaken  it.  And 
what  impressed  me  as  much  as  anything  is  the 
quiet  matter-of-course  way  in  which  everything  has 


16  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

been  done.  Nobody  delivers  public  speeches  about 
sacrifice.  Everybody  just  acquiesces  with  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  lot  to  do,  and  does  it. 

I  have  been  to  Russia  several  times.  The  change 
in  the  demeanour  of  the  people  now  is  remarkable. 
I  remember  when  it  was  inadvisable  to  talk  politics. 
Now  the  future  government  is  freely  discussed.  In 
the  old  days  the  deficiencies  of  high  officials  could 
not  be  whispered  ;  now  they  are  debated  as  freely 
over  the  luncheon  table  as  they  would  be  in  England. 
I  can  recall  when  a  certain  class  of  young  men  in 
Russia  scorned  religion.  One  Sunday  morning  since 
the  war,  I  saw  hundreds  of  these  young  fellows  at 
church.  I  was  at  an  open-air  concert  in  Moscow 
and  there  was  the  singing  and  the  loud  applause  of 
a  song  by  Maxim  Gorky  about  the  life  of  the  exile 
in  Siberia,  a  song  which  would  have  been  impossible 
in  Russia  a  year  or  so  ago.  And  here  it  is  that  the 
Government  acquiesces.  Strange  things  are  happen- 
ing to  Russia  to-day  besides  those  enacted  on  the 
battlefield. 


CHAPTER  II 

PETROGRAD   IN  WAR  TIME 

WHAT  gave  me  some  surprise  was  that  there  was 
rather  less  evidence  of  the  war  in  Petrograd  than 
in  London.  Twice  previously  had  I  been  in  the 
Russian  capital,  the  first  occasion  in  normal  times, 
the  second  visit  when  Russia  was  in  the  throes  of 
internal  political  disorder.  But  the  capital  to-day 
is  in  a  happier  mood  than  London  is,  and  compared 
with  Paris  it  might  be  described  as  jolly. 

There  are  always  plenty  of  soldiers  to  be  seen 
in  Petrograd ;  but  a  saunter  along  the  crowded 
pavements  of  the  Nevski — the  widest,  straightest, 
and  in  its  way  the  most  dignified  street  in  the  world 
— in  the  fall  of  a  sunny  afternoon  may  cause  you 
to  encounter  a  few  limping  soldiers,  recovering  from 
their  wounds  in  the  war,  but  not  so  many  as  during 
a  walk  down  Regent  Street  at  home. 

It  is  rare  to  meet  one  of  these  big  brawny  Mus- 
covites who  is  not  wearing  a  decoration  of  some  kind. 
Unlike  the  British,  who  keep  their  decorations  in 
boxes,  and  only  produce  them  on  state  occasions,  the 
Russian  officer  always  wears  his  orders,  at  his  throat 
and  on  both  sides  of  his  tunic.  I  like  the  way  every 
officer  returns  the  salute  of  the  humblest  Russian 
Ivan  Ivanovitch.  When  the  Russian  soldier  sees 
c  17 


i8  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

a  general  he  stands  at  attention,  and  as  his  superior 
passes  lifts  his  hand  to  the  salute,  and  his  eyes  follow 
the  general  as  he  goes  by.  But  the  officer  does  not 
give  a  casual  whisk  of  his  cane  in  response,  as  I  have 
noticed  in  another  country,  but  he  makes  an  almost 
deferential  acknowledgment.  It  is  a  great  land  for 
military  and  other  decorations.  It  is  an  exception 
to  meet  any  soldier  or  sailor  who  is  not  wearing  a 
red  Maltese  cross  at  his  throat  or  has  not  one,  two, 
three,  or  nine  and  ten  medals  and  medallions  across 
his  chest.  There  was  a  heavy-coated  and  heavy- 
sabred  policeman  at  the  end  of  my  street  who  had 
more  medals  weighing  him  down  than  I  have  ever 
seen  upon  the  full  dress  uniform  of  an  English  field- 
marshal. 

An  English  officer  has  little  bits  of  ribbon  on  his 
tunic  and  miniature  replicas  for  half- dress  occasion. 
But  the  Russian  officer  is  in  full  fig  all  the  time. 
The  only  Russian  who  rarely  wears  an  order  is  the 
Emperor.  Amid  the  scintillation  of  innumerable 
radiances  there  is  distinction  in  an  undecorated 
tunic. 

Occasionally  a  battalion  comes  marching  along, 
top-coated  and  heavily  equipped,  the  men  bronzed 
and  many  of  them  bearded.  They  lack  that  straight- 
backed  easy  swing  which  is  the  characteristic  of  the 
British  Tommy  on  the  march ;  there  is  something 
of  a  slouch  in  the  walk.  They  are  hardy,  and  men 
with  whom  I  have  talked  and  who  have  returned 
from  the  fighting  lines  are  enthusiastic  about  their 
bravery.  Give  them  an  officer  whom  they  like, 


ft  I 


•K    f   f 


A    RUSSIAN    POLICEMAN 


PETROGRAD    IN   WAR   TIME  19 

and  they  worship  him ;  they  will  face  any  danger 
if  well  led.  But  if  not  well  led — humph  ! 

Bulletins  of  the  progress  of  the  war  are  posted 
at  many  street  corners.  The  evening  newspapers 
sell  rapidly.  The  Russian  tri-colour  floats  from 
every  flagstaff.  Pictures  of  national  heroes  are 
in  the  windows.  Print  shops  have  photographs  of 
the  heads  of  the  Allied  States  :  the  Emperor,  the 
Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the  President  of  the  French 
Republic,  King  George,  the  Mikado,  the  King  of 
Italy,  but,  next  to  the  picture  of  the  Czar,  that 
of  the  King  of  the  Belgians  seems  to  be  the  most 
popular.  In  one  shop  window  were  the  open  pages 
of  the  English  illustrated  journals,  and  crowds  of 
Russians  gazed  at  the  way  Tommy  was  bayoneting 
Huns.  National  emblems  in  the  form  of  enamelled 
brooches  are  popular,  but  in  nearly  every  case  of  the 
British  flag  the  upper  white  bar  is  narrow,  not 
broad,  so  that  the  Union  Jack  is  upside  down,  which 
is  a  pity. 

At  concerts  the  national  anthems  of  the  Allies 
are  played,  beginning  with  the  Russian  and  ending 
with  the  Russian.  I  remember  the  time  when  the 
"  Marseillaise "  was  prohibited  in  Russia,  because 
it  was  the  song  of  the  Revolutionaries  ;  now  the  band 
of  the  Emperor  plays  it.  But  "  God  Save  the  King  " 
is  not  played — the  air  happens  to  be  the  same  as  the 
German  anthem,  and  there  must  be  no  chance  of 
mistake  in  the  music ;  so  "  Rule  Britannia "  is 
played  in  substitution. 

In  one  of  the  railway  stations  I  saw  a  notice 


20  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

forbidding  the  use  of  the  German  language.  In 
one's  bedroom,  where  there  was  a  printed  card  in 
half  a  dozen  languages  telling  how  many  times  you 
must  ring  for  the  waiter  and  how  many  times  for  the 
chambermaid,  the  information  in  German  was  ruled 
out.  In  the  hotel  corridors  the  words  "  Sortie " 
and  "  Way  out "  remained,  but  "  Ausgang "  had 
been  whitewashed  over.  The  German  Embassy 
has  had  every  outward  evidence  of  its  former  purpose 
removed,  and  the  windows  boarded  up.  It  would 
look  as  though  everything  was  done  to  obliterate 
Germany  from  knowledge.  But  not  quite.  In 
Britain  there  is  a  law  forbidding  trading  with  the 
enemy.  No  such  law  exists  in  Russia.  Goods  of 
German  origin  continue  to  come  into  Russia  by 
means  of  neutral  ships,  but  they  are  penalised  by 
the  import  duty  being  increased  100  per  cent.,  and 
they  are  not  sold  as  German. 

Petrograd  is  philosophic.  It  is  in  the  nature 
of  things  that  Russia  should  have  her  push-backs 
as  well  as  her  advances.  If  she  loses  a  million  of  men 
what  of  that  in  a  white  population  of  over  120,000,000  ? 
There  is  always  a  considerable  colony  of  English- 
men in  the  capital,  but  since  the  war  began  there 
has  been  a  considerable  inflow  of  American  business 
men — Russians  have  remarked  that  the  majority 
bear  German  names — and  they  are  after  Govern- 
ment contracts  for  supplies  and  getting  them;  for 
Britain  and  France  have  enough  to  do  attending  to 
their  own  needs. 

Were  it  not  for  the  lame  soldiers  and  the  pic- 


PETROGRAD    IN   WAR   TIME          21 

turesque  and  swagger-walking  Cossacks  and  the 
Red  Cross  nurses,  with  white  cowls  making  them 
look  like  nuns,  it  would  be  easy  enough  to  forget  that 
Russia  is  at  war.  Business  is  running  on  much  as 
usual ;  the  theatres  and  kinema  shows  are  crowded  ; 
the  better-class  restaurants  are  packed.  Indeed, 
Petrograd  is  fuller  than  is  customary,  for  most  of 
the  nobility  are  remaining  in  the  capital  instead  of 
going  to  their  country  estates.  Usually  the  wealthy 
Russians  go  abroad  a  great  deal ;  now  they  stay 
at  home. 

But  under  the  philosophic  acceptance  of  the 
fortune  of  events,  concern  about  the  future  is  more 
noticeable  to-day  to  a  man  who  revisits  the  country 
after  an  absence  of  some  years  than  maybe  it  is  to 
those  who  have  constantly  lived  amongst  Russians. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  have  mixed  with  all  classes, 
but  I  met  many  men  throughout  Russia  associated 
with  public  affairs,  and  there  is  greater  freedom  in 
debating  high  national  politics  than  could  have  been 
expected.  It  is  not  only  a  question  of  beating  the 
Germans  that  is  agitating  the  minds  of  men.  There 
is  a  strong  belief  that  Russia,  after  the  war,  will  make 
another  great  move  in  the  evolution  of  her  destiny. 

There  probably  never  was  a  Russia  such  as  is 
depicted  in  melodrama  or  florid  fiction  ;  but  if  there 
was  it  has  gone  for  ever.  Russia  has  come  within  the 
circle  of  western  nations  within  the  last  hundred 
years,  and  now  one  notices  a  current  of  feeling  that 
the  twentieth  century  is  to  be  the  time  for  the  real 
development  of  Russian  resources. 


22  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  progress  Russia  has  made  within  the  last 
hundred  years  has  been  phenomenal.  But  it  is  felt 
that  after  the  war  Russia  must  zealously  equip  her- 
self for  playing  a  much  bigger  part  in  the  industrial 
and  agricultural  story  of  the  world's  progress.  There 
must  be  organisation  of  resources  and  a  more  intense 
cultivation  of  character — not  an  imitation  of  other 
lands,  but  a  development  of  her  own  qualities  into 
a  mighty  nation.  It  is  all  rather  vague  at  present. 
But  you  cannot  be  in  Petrograd  a  week  conversing 
with  public  men — remembering  the  state  of  thought 
less  than  ten  years  ago — and  not  learn  there  is  a  ten- 
dency towards  action.  This  aspiration,  merging  into 
decision,  contributes  to  the  steady  optimism  of  the 
Russians  regarding  the  war. 

The  war  has  practically  doubled  the  cost  of  living. 
This  is  mainly  due  to  shortage,  but  partly  to  the  con- 
servation of  supplies  by  speculators.  I  have  heard 
of  no  strikes  on  the  part  of  workmen  for  increased 
wages  because  living  charges  have  increased — I've 
an  idea  they  do  not  allow  strikes  in  Russia.  In 
the  capital  there  are  signs  of  a  scarcity  of  beef.  Not 
because  there  is  less  meat  than  in  normal  times,  but 
because  it  is  wanted  to  feed  the  millions  of  soldiers, 
most  of  them  peasants,  who  rarely  have  beef  in 
times  of  peace. 

All  the  old  hot  talk  about  revolution  is  damped 
down  for  the  present.  The  Emperor,  as  keenly 
concerned  about  the  welfare  of  his  troops  as  is 
his  cousin,  King  George,  goes  about  the  country 
visiting  his  troops  with  an  openness  which  would 


PETROGRAD   IN   WAR   TIME          23 

have  been  impossible  before  the  war.  Russian 
party  politics — autocracy  versus  democracy — are  as 
quiet  as  Radicalism  and  Conservatism  in  England; 
but  they  are  by  no  means  dead.  As  there  is  no 
division,  acute  and  dangerous,  there  is  more  freedom 
in  debating  affairs  than  ever  I  knew  before.  The 
Russians  expect  great  things  as  a  result  of  the  war — 
not  in  the  way  of  territory,  but  in  national  develop- 
ment. There  is  a  movement  that  the  country  should 
manufacture  more  and  not  be  so  dependent  on  other 
countries. 

Britain  provides  them  with  a  model  in  institutions. 
They  would  have  their  country  run  politically  after 
the  manner  of  Britain.  That  is  why  the  ardent 
reformers  now  hold  their  peace.  If  Russia  is  regen- 
erated after  the  war,  good.  But  if  the  old  Russia 
remains — well,  who  can  prophesy  what  time  will 
bring  forth  ?  The  six  million  Jews  in  Russia  hope 
for  much,  and  in  the  past  the  Jew  in  Russia  has 
had  somewhat  of  a  hustled  time. 

Petrograd  in  war  time  is  more  cosmopolitan  than 
ever,  except  that  there  are  no  Germans.  But 
German  influence  is  not  annulled.  Petrograd  is 
close  to  the  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia  where  the 
people  have  the  round  heads  of  Teutons  and  the 
fair  hair  ;  and  German  is  there  the  mother  language, 
though  Russian  is  what  they  are  compulsorily  taught 
at  school.  This  region  provides  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  official  class  in  the  capital — every 
other  man  one  meets  in  Petrograd  is  in  uniform — 
and  though  the  punishment  is  terrible  for  speaking 


24  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

German,  I  have  been  told,  by  that  talkative  bird 
that  is  ever  fluttering  round,  that  in  some  Govern- 
ment departments  officials  in  quiet  conversation 
amongst  themselves  find  it  easier  to  converse  in  the 
hated  tongue  than  in  Russian. 

I  seem  to  have  a  recollection  of  flag  days  in  old 
England  before  I  left  home,  when  charming  but 
importunate  maidens,  working  in  couples,  accosted 
the  undefended  male  and  demanded  his  money 
in  return  for  a  rosette,  or  a  button,  or  a  paper  flag, 
or  something  else,  and  the  ordinary  man  gave  his 
shilling — taking  for  granted  it  would  be  for  a  good 
cause — mainly  to  wear  a  souvenir  which  would  save 
him  from  being  molested  by  other  maidens.  It 
is  possible  I  exaggerate,  but  I  felt  there  were  three 
flag  days  "  running  concurrently,"  as  the  assize 
reports  put  it,  in  Petrograd  every  day.  They  were 
all  for  most  excellent  purposes,  and  in  the  streets 
you  were  accosted  by  men  and  by  women  who 
gave  you  a  portrait  of  a  Royal  princess  to  pin  in 
your  coat,  or  a  crest,  or  a  banner,  in  return  for  the 
coin  you  cared  to  drop  into  a  tin  box. 

I  was  an  interested  and  slightly  amused  spectator 
whilst  Petrograd  passed  through  three  strenuous 
days  of  well-doing.  And  all  the  other  cities  of 
Russia  are  believed  to  have  done  the  same.  How 
many  millions  of  roubles  were  collected  would  be 
a  wild  guess  ;  but  when  in  the  mood  the  Russian 
is  not  only  a  cheerful,  but  a  riotous  giver. 

The  idea  of  helping  the  distant  war-sufferers 
came  from  the  Grand  Duchess  Tatiana,  aged  seventeen 


PETROGRAD   IN   WAR   TIME          25 

years  and  the  daughter  of  the  Czar.  She  is  tall  and 
dark  and  beautiful  and  mischievous,  and  the  Russians 
adore  her.  I  have  never  seen  her,  but  I  hope  to  do 
so  one  of  these  days.  I  had  a  private  seance  of  the 
kinematograph  pictures  of  the  Court,  and  the  way 
the  Princess  Tatiana  played  tug-of-war  against  her 
august  father  and  romped  about  the  deck  of  the 
Imperial  yacht  Standart  on  roller  skates  showed 
that  she  was  a  lively  girl. 

When  she  started  her  fund  to  find  bread  and 
clothing  for  the  people  of  Poland  it  was  like  the 
waving  of  a  fairy  wand.  You  understand  the 
emotional  character  of  the  Russians.  The  appeal 
by  their  pretty  princess  was  irresistible.  The  country 
sprouted  with  committees.  The  thing  was  to  get 
money,  to  smile,  wheedle,  or  bully  roubles  out  of 
everybody's  pockets  ;  and  it  was  achieved,  mainly 
through  thousands  of  lady  collectors  with  personal 
blandishments.  There  was  a  time  when  I  was 
willing  to  accept  the  story  that  loyal  demonstrations 
in  Russia  were  made  to  order.  But  it  really  cannot 
be  true  to-day.  And  though  I  am  sure  the  Russians 
have  tender  hearts  for  the  sufferers  of  the  war,  I 
am  more  than  inclined  to  believe  that  what  stimu- 
lated their  generosity  most  was  affection  for  the 
Princess  Tatiana. 

Imagination  was  appealed  to.  It  would  have 
been  difficult  to  find  a  shop  window  in  Petrograd 
where  there  was  not  a  large  photograph  of  the  young 
lady,  with  a  softly  twinkling  side-glance  as  much  as 
to  inquire  :  **  Well,  how  much  have  you  given  ?  " 


26  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

The  money  paid  for  those  photographs  went  to  the 
fund.  At  street  corners  ladies  sat  through  the  hot 
days — and  it  can  be  warm  in  Petrograd — engaged 
in  a  thriving  trade  of  selling  picture  postcards  of  the 
princess.  And  all  the  society  young  ladies  of  Petro- 
grad put  on  their  best  bibs  and  tuckers,  and,  armed 
with  a  shield  fronted  with  paper  medallion  portraits 
of  the  princess,  determinedly — I  almost  wrote  im- 
pudently— raided  the  pockets  of  susceptible  men. 
You  may  have  dropped  your  coin  into  the  box  and 
had  a  portrait  pinned  to  your  coat,  but  that  was  no 
guard  against  further  attack.  The  effect  of  the  eyes 
of  a  Russian  lady  is  notorious,  and  when  one  marches 
straight  at  you  and  starts  pinning  another  medallion 
on  the  other  lapel  of  your  coat,  and  your  mild  protest 
is  met  with  a  smiling,  beseeching,  "  Ah,  pashalst !  " 
("  Ah,  if  you  please  !  ") — well,  what  is  a  man  to  do  ? 
I've  seen  elderly  gentlemen  sauntering  along  the 
Nevski  with  as  long  a  row  of  little  photographs  of  the 
princess  across  their  rotund  chests  as  the  stretch 
of  medals  worn  by  a  Petrograd  policeman — and  that 
is  wonderful. 

The  three  days'  adoration  of  the  Princess  Tatiana 
— you  will  not  get  it  out  of  my  mind  it  was  the  princess, 
and  not  the  Poles,  which  did  the  business  of  the 
millions  of  roubles — began  with  a  great  open-air  service 
in  front  of  the  Kazan  Church.  Gorgeous  is  the  cere- 
monial of  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  the  heavily 
crowned  and  gold-robed  priests  holding  aloft  the 
crucifix  always  look  as  though  they  had  stepped 
out  of  a  painting  of  a  scene  when  Byzantium  was 


PETROGRAD   IN   WAR   TIME          27 

in  its  glory.  The  front  of  the  Kazan  Church  is  a 
deeply  colonnaded  curve,  and  here  were  gathered 
thousands  of  worshippers.  Other  thousands  were 
about  the  steps  and  thronging  the  gardens.  But 
it  was  a  public  school  holiday,  and  I  do  not  know 
how  many  thousands  of  children,  smartened  by 
their  parents,  were  there — the  tiny  tots  saved  from 
being  lost  by  being  corralled  within  ropes — and 
every  one  carrying  a  little  Russian  flag.  Also  there 
were  hundreds  of  Russian  Boy  Scouts,  with  their 
slouch  hats  and  knee-breeches,  and  gaudy  kerchiefs 
and  poles — but  they  really  did  lack  the  smartness 
of  their  British  colleagues. 

There  was  impressiveness  about  the  service,  the 
gorgeously  clad  priests  on  the  high  steps  giving 
blessing  to  the  bareheaded  multitude  below.  Then 
the  band  (two  bands,  in  fact,  one  at  either  end  of  the 
colonnade)  burst  forth  with  the  Russian  National 
Anthem,  "  God  Bless  Our  Noble  Czar,"  surely  the 
most  stately  national  anthem  in  the  world.  Much 
cheering  and  the  waving  of  hats,  and  the  Boy  Scouts 
with  their  "  Baden-Powells  "  hoisted  at  the  end  of 
their  sticks.  A  second  time  the  anthem  was  played, 
and  the  outburst  of  joy  was  louder  than  ever.  A 
third  time  was  it  played,  but  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
crowd  swelled  and  almost  smothered  the  music, 
so  that  one  band  finished  by  a  good  neck  before  the 
other. 

I  suppose  the  blessing  of  the  clergy  absolved  the 
young  ladies  of  Petrograd  from  any  restraint  in 
money-getting  for  the  good  cause.  Their  efforts 


25  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

were  not  confined  to  the  streets.  They  marched  into 
shops  and  buttonholed  the  customers.  They  raided 
the  suburban  trains  ;  they  mounted  the  tramcars. 
They  invaded  the  smoking-rooms  of  hotels  and 
politely  stopped  you  in  the  reading  of  a  fortnight  - 
old  London  newspaper — with,  of  course,  the  most 
interesting  news  blacked  out  by  that  censor  fellow 
— to  remind  you  that  they  had  serious  business  with 
you.  At  the  corner  of  the  Moskaya  was  a  motor 
car  converted  into  a  shore  gondola,  and  whilst  real 
Neapolitans  were  providing  the  songs  of  the  South, 
the  young  ladies  were  going  through  the  pockets 
of  the  crowd. 

On  one  of  the  three  afternoons  I  was  taken  by 
two  Russian  ladies  to  a  special  cafe  chantant  where 
all  the  performers  were  folk  of  society  with  "  talent,'' 
and  others  of  noble  birth  unblushingly  demanded  2s. 
for  a  cup  of  tea  and  a  chocolate  meringue. 

Well-to-do  Petrograd  people  have  the  restaurant 
habit  upon  them.  When  the  palm  court  at  the 
Astoria  was  full,  or  the  roof  garden  at  the  H6tel  de 
1'Europe  was  busy,  the  chatter  would  cease  because 
a  famous  tenor  from  the  opera  had  sprung  to  his 
feet  and  was  singing.  Before  the  well-won  applause 
had  finished,  he  was  at  you  with  a  plate  wanting  a 
contribution  to  the  Grand  Duchess's  fund.  You  paid 
and  smiled,  and  went  on  with  your  dinner.  Hush  ! 
And  you  had  to  stop  your  talk  and  put  down  your 
knife  and  fork  and  let  the  food  go  cold  whilst  a 
great  actress  thrilled  you  with  her  declamation. 
Then  she  was  at  you  with  a  plate,  and  she  smiled 


PETROGRAD   IN   WAR   TIME          29 

and  you  smiled  and  handed  out  another  rouble. 
That  is  the  case  with  the  frugal  Briton.  But  with 
the  Russian — and  there  is  a  vein  of  ostentation  in 
him — he  is  reckless ;  he  tossed  his  ten,  twenty-five, 
or  hundred  rouble  note  on  the  plate.  I  have  never 
seen  such  prodigality. 

All  the  world  knows  that  Russia  is  teetotal  by 
Imperial  decree.  Not  only  is  the  manufacture  of 
vodka  stopped,  but  heavy  is  the  fist  of  the  law  if 
there  is  the  sale  of  brandy,  or  wine  or  beer.  You 
dine  at  the  Astoria,  a  sort  of  second-class  Savoy, 
and  the  band  bangs  out  Yankee  ragtime  tunes  and 
gives  you  "  Tipperary,"  and  the  waiters  speak  all 
European  tongues  (save  German),  and  everybody 
is  in  good  humour — but  there  is  no  wine  to  make  the 
heart  of  man  glad.  You  drink  narsan,  a  Russian 
mineral  water,  or  grape  juice,  but  mostly  you  drink 
kvass,  which  is  made  from  bread  and  tastes  like 
insipid  ginger-beer. 

The  ordinary  man  can  wander  Russia  over  and 
see  neither  spirits  nor  wine  nor  beer.  A  prohibition 
State  in  America — some  of  us  know  the  use  of  the 
teapot  over  there — is  a  reeking  pub.  compared  with 
Russia.  If  you  want  to  guzzle  you  can  have  a 
tumbler  of  mineral  water,  and  at  my  hotel  the  price 
was  Is.  6d.  Deciding  this  was  too  expensive  for 
a  mere  vagabond  writer,  I  took  to  kvass,  which  is 
the  liquid  off  soaked  black  bread — ugh!  the  most 
depressing  sour  beverage  ever  invented.  That  cost 
Is.  6d.  a  tumbler.  Bent  on  economy,  I  decided  on 
a  bottle  of  boiled  and  filtered  water,  and  then  to 


30  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

reward  my  virtue,  I  stood  myself  a  decent  cigar. 
But  they  still  charged  Is.  6d.  for  the  water,  and  the 
cigar  cost  5s.  Leading  the  simple  non-alcoholic  life 
in  Russia  during  war  time  is  an  expensive  luxury. 

One  evening  I  went  to  the  Bouffe,  radiant  with 
lights,  and  the  place  was  thronged  whilst  an  open- 
air  opera  was  performed.  Then  there  was  a  crush 
into  a  great  hall,  where  everybody  had  supper  at 
midnight,  whilst  a  procession  of  women  singers  and 
dancers  appeared  on  the  stage — a  somewhat  indiffer- 
ent performance  compared  with  what  we  are  used 
to  in  London.  The  throng  was  more  concerned  with 
supper  than  with  the  entertainment,  though  patriotic 
songs  stirred  everyone  to  enthusiasm.  On  the 
Sunday  evening  I  accompanied  some  Russian  and 
French  friends  to  Pavlovsk,  half-an-hour's  railway 
journey  out  of  Petrograd,  where  there  is  a  charming 
park  in  which  stands  the  little  house  which  was  the 
summer  residence  of  the  Emperor  Paul.  Russian 
soldiers  sang  Slavonic  songs,  a  military  band  played 
marches,  whilst  inside  the  concert  hall  was  a  mass  of 
Sunday  holiday  makers  listening  to  an  excellent 
orchestra.  We  dined  in  the  open  and  watched  a 
hundred  thousand  Petrograd  folk  promenading. 
Apart  from  the  military  costumes,  one  might  have 
been  watching  a  well-dressed  middle-class  assembly 
of  English  people  in  the  neighbourhood  of  one  of 
our  great  provincial  towns.  The  war  still  appeared 
to  be  a  long  way  off. 

Yet,  though  things  in  Petrograd  apparently 
run  on  normal  lines,  just  as  they  do  in  London,  the 


PETROGRAD   IN   WAR   TIME          31 

facts  of  war  dog  one  everywhere.  The  Italian  waiter 
who  brought  me  my  cafe  complet  in  the  morning  has 
been  called  to  his  own  country  to  fight  the  Austrians. 
One  evening  at  dinner  there  was  lightness  of  talk  and 
music  in  the  "  roof-garden "  restaurant.  At  the 
adjoining  table  was  a  happy  party.  An  officer 
came  up,  bowed,  kissed  the  hand  of  one  of  the  ladies, 
and  whispered  something.  She  went  away  ashen  and 
with  eyes  flooded  with  tears  ;  her  brother  had  been 
killed.  Farther  down  the  room  were  four  officers 
in  the  gayest  of  spirits,  but  they  were  all  wounded. 

The  street  urchins  bawl  their  journalistic  wares 
at  the  corners ;  nurses  conduct  their  sorry  pro- 
cessions of  wounded  men ;  but  otherwise  there  is 
small  surface  indication  in  Petrograd  that  Russia  is 
at  war. 

There  is  no  darkening  of  the  streets.  It  would  be 
a  difficult  business  in  summer  unless  a  giant  tar- 
paulin were  spread  over  the  city.  For  summer  is  the 
time  of  the  "  white  night,"  as  the  Russians  call  it. 
There  is  no  darkness.  At  eleven  o'clock  the  Nevski 
is  thronged  with  people  taking  a  promenade,  and 
the  light  is  that  of  eight  o'clock  in  English  high 
summer.  There  is  a  softening  to  deepest  blue  past 
midnight  and  you  listen  to  the  last  numbers  of  a 
garden  concert  with  the  rising  sun  in  your  eyes. 

Petrograd  is  the  city  of  the  white  night — but 
there  are  many  sad  and  tremulous  hearts,  wondering, 
wondering,  wondering,  just  as  there  are  amongst 
folks  in  England. 


CHAPTER  III 

TEETOTAL    RUSSIA 

RUSSIA  is  never  going  to  be  drunken  again.  Alcoholic 
beverages  have  been  prohibited,  and  the  Russians  are 
getting  used  to  teetotal  beverages.  They  are  quite 
pleased  with  themselves. 

All  stores  where  brandy,  whisky,  vodka,  cham- 
pagne, wine,  beer  or  liquors  were  sold  have  been 
locked  and  sealed  by  the  authorities.  The  liberty- 
loving  Briton,  sitting  in  a  restaurant  and  fancying 
something  more  potent  than  mineral  water,  casts  his 
eyes  upon  the  glass  cases  behind  the  counter  where 
are  marshalled  rows  of  bottles  of  "  the  real  stuff," 
but  locked  up  and  forbidden.  He  revels  in  imagina- 
tion of  the  time  he  will  have  when  he  returns  to 
England. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  cold  weather  in  Russia 
and  there  used  to  be  much  drunkenness.  Before 
breakfast  the  Russian  workman,  feeling  cold,  would 
gulp  down  a  bottle  of  fiery  vodka  which  cheered  him 
and  then  fuddled  him.  Indeed,  all  classes  might 
be  described  as  heavy  drinkers.  There  was  plenty 
of  debauchery  and  sometimes  there  were  horrible 
tragedies. 

But  generally  the  Russian  in  his  cups  was  not 
aggressive.  He  was  not  quarrelsome.  He  did  not 
32 


TEETOTAL   RUSSIA  33 

want  to  fight  everybody.  His  mood  was  rather  to 
roll  round  and  slobberingly  kiss  all  whom  he  met — 
though  it  might  have  been  preferable  if  he  had 
wanted  to  fight. 

Anyway,  Nicholas  II.,  an  Imperial  Lloyd  George, 
but  with  the  power  to  do  what  he  wills,  conscious 
that  a  vodka-soaked  Russia  was  not  the  correct 
thing  whilst  the  greatest  war  was  being  waged, 
said  there  was  to  be  no  more  alcohol  sold.  And  it 
was  so.  Dealers  have  been  ruined.  But  Russia 
is  not  a  land  in  which  to  babble  about  compensation. 

The  nation  was  declared,  by  Imperial  rescript 
and  by  the  order  of  the  authorities,  to  be  teetotal. 
Of  course,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  groaning  amongst 
the  120,000,000  white  Russians.  For  now,  if  any 
brandy  or  wine  is  needed  for  medical  purposes  it 
has  to  be  bought  at  an  apothecary's,  but  only  on 
a  magisterial  permit,  and  the  magisterial  permit 
is  granted  only  on  a  medical  certificate. 

A  good  many  people,  used  all  their  life  to  a  little 
liquor  with  their  meals,  became  ill ;  but  they  re- 
covered. Those  with  the  hunger  of  drink  upon 
them  have  taken  to  drinking  methylated  spirits  and 
other  things  that  are  evil  for  the  inside.  Many  have 
died  from  excess  of  methylated  spirits.  The  majority 
of  folk  have  to  be  content  with  drinking  tea — and 
the  number  of  glasses  of  tea,  deliciously  refreshing, 
the  Russian  and  his  wife  can  consume  puts  into 
dimmest  shade  the  lady  who  "  swelled  wisibly " 
in  Mr.  Dickens's  novel. 

For  the  rest  the  table  beverage  is  kvass,  which 


34  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

can  be  made  out  of  soaked  black  bread,  or  white 
bread,  or  squeezed  cranberries,  or  indeed  anything 
— and  you  can  drink  quantities  of  it  and  never 
get  any  forrader.  A  couple  of  centuries  ago  or 
more,  Mr.  Giles  Fletcher,  "  a  quaint  author,"  wrote 
about  "  The  Russe  Common  Wealth  " — "  the  poorer 
sort  vse  water  and  thinne  drinke  called  Quasse, 
which  is  nothing  els  but  water  turned  out  of  his 
wittes  with  a  little  branne  mashed  with  it." 

Russians  never  were  a  light-hearted  and  jolly 
people.  When  they  drank  alcohol  they  did  it  after 
the  manner  of  all  northern  nations,  as  a  serious 
business.  And  drinking  a  lot  of  chorni  kvass,  the 
swillings  of  soaked  black  bread,  is  no  doubt  for  their 
good.  But  it  does  not  promote  sparkling  conversa- 
tion. My  purely  personal  experience  was  that  after 
several  stout  doses  of  kvass  with  my  lunch  and  dinner 
I  began  to  feel  this  was  a  sad  world,  and  that  I  had 
better  get  myself  to  a  monastery.  But  my  depression 
somewhat  evaporated  when  I  abjured  kvass,  and 
went  the  racket  on  orangeade. 

Night  life  in  the  cafe's  or  public  gardens  used 
to  be  a  thing  to  enjoy  in  Russia.  With  excellent 
restaurants  and  bands  and  wine  there  was  sparkle 
about  midnight.  But  there  is  lowered  gaiety — not 
all  due  to  the  war — when  champagne  has  to  be 
replaced  by  stuff  which  is  like  ginger-pop  from  which 
the  cork  escaped  yesterday. 

The  hotel  keepers  and  restaurant  proprietors, 
who  formerly  sought  their  profits  in  the  wine  their 
customers  drank,  have  long  faces,  as  though  on  the 


TEETOTAL   RUSSIA  35 

verge  of  an  uncomfortable  interview  in  the  bank- 
ruptcy court.  Anyway,  to  put  themselves  straight, 
up  has  gone  the  price  of  rooms ;  the  price  of  dishes 
has  nearly  doubled — again  not  all  due  to  the  war — 
and  you  pay  for  a  bottle  of  lemonade  as  much  as 
you  would  for  a  passable  half-bottle  of  wine  at 
home. 

Of  course,  all  drink  is  not  banished  as  though  there 
had  been  a  ukase  consigning  it  to  Siberia.  Well-to- 
do  folk  who  have  the  luxury  of  cellars  can  draw  from 
stocks  accumulated  in  pre-teetotal  times.  Though 
the  punishment  is  severe  (if  found  out)  it  is  not 
impossible  for  a  dinner  party  in  a  private  room 
of  an  hotel  to  be  supplied ;  but  the  price  !  Well,  a 
bottle  of  Scotch  whisky  will  cost  28s. 

At  cafe  chantants,  where  parties  have  supper 
in  recesses,  I  believe  that  what  is  needed  can  be 
secured.  During  several  months  in  Russia  I  saw 
only  one  drunken  man,  and  he  came  staggering 
from  behind  the  curtains  of  one  of  these  recesses. 
In  glass  jugs  can  occasionally  be  seen  liquids  which 
look  wonderfully  like  champagne,  though  you  are 
not  supposed  to  think  it  anything  more  than  sprightly 
lemonade. 

Such  cases,  however,  attract  attention  because 
they  are  exceptional.  Viewing  the  whole  of  the 
nation,  I  don't  believe  that  one  person  in  a  hundred 
has  been  able  to  obtain  a  drop  of  alcohol  since  the 
Emperor  issued  his  prohibition. 

With  my  head  bowed  to  my  very  knees,  I  may 
be  allowed  to  venture  the  belief  the  Emperor  did  not 


36  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

quite  realise  what  he  was  doing  when  he  wrote  his 
historic  command.  He  was  thinking  of  his  soldiers 
who  look  to  him  as  the  Little  White  Father.  When 
the  breath  of  war  spread  over  most  of  Europe  the 
legions  of  the  Czar  had  to  be  mobilised.  Not  only 
the  men  in  the  standing  Army,  but  the  millions 
who  were  still  of  fighting  age  and  could  be  used 
were  summoned  to  their  regiments,  men  from 
Bessarabia,  and  Archangel,  and  beyond  the  Urals 
and  along  the  Don  side. 

The  villagers  throughout  Russia  were  willing  to 
fight.  But  there  had  to  be  "  a  wee  deoch  an'  doris  " 
before  they  went  awa' ;  and  there  was  more  fare- 
well drinking  and  more  consumption  of  vodka  and 
more,  until,  it  may  be  said,  within  limitations,  that 
the  fighting  men  of  Russia  were  reeling  with  in- 
toxication. It  was  the  "  misplaced  kindness "  I 
used  to  read  about  in  England  when  generous  folk 
stood  Tommy  too  much  beer — only  much  worse,  and 
with  raw  spirits  reducing  to  loglike  insensibility  the 
sons  of  Russia. 

"  Stop  the  sale  of  drink,"  said  the  Autocrat,  and 
the  men  became  sober. 

Before  the  Imperial  order  the  mobilisation  was 
like  to  have  been  a  ghastly  failure.  When  its  effect 
was  operating  the  change  was  astounding.  The 
orgies  ceased  like  a  nasty  dream  on  waking — there 
was  only  the  remembrance.  Instead  of  the  military 
authorities  being  in  despair  at  the  ragged  muster, 
as  attenuated  and  as  shaky  as  the  roll  call  after 
fierce  battle,  men  responded  not  with  alertness — 


TEETOTAL   RUSSIA  37 

alertness  is  alien  to  the  Muscovite  character — but 
in  order. 

Quietly,  correctly,  without  fuss,  the  soldiers  re- 
ported themselves  at  their  various  stations.  Officers, 
lamentably  aware  of  the  weakness  of  the  moudjiks, 
have  told  me  of  their  amazement  at  the  way  the 
men  appeared  and  behaved.  The  tempestuous 
drunken  disorders  when  the  Army  was  sent  to  the 
Russo-Japanese  War  were  recalled,  and  officers, 
not  at  all  given  to  prayer,  were  devoutly  grateful 
at  the  change. 

That  was  why  Russia,  the  land  of  illimitable 
distances,  was  able  to  mobilise  her  troops  with  a 
rapidity  which  staggered  Germany  at  the  opening 
moves  of  the  combat,  and  which  captured  the  applause 
of  the  rest  of  the  world.  ..i 

Away  from  the  drink  the  Russian  soldier  is  the 
best  of  good  fellows.  He  may  lack  initiative ; 
he  may  not  be  as  well  equipped  as  his  adversary  ; 
he  may  be  beaten  back  by  the  vigour  of  heavier  guns. 
But  he  is  a  steady  lad,  and  he  has  been  fighting  for 
long  months  on  water  and  has  never  uttered  a 
grumble.  Indeed,  though  I  kept  my  ears  alert,  I 
never  heard  any  complaint  from  any  Russian  against 
compulsory  abstinence. 

Though  the  prohibition  was  declared  primarily  in 
the  interests  of  the  Army,  the  whole  of  the  civilian 
population  came  within  its  range. 

You  know  in  England  and  Scotland  what  is  the 
effect  on  the  working  classes  of  drinking  raw  spirits 
before  breakfast.  One  must  be  careful  not  to  exag- 


38  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

gerate  the  amount  of  sottishness  in  Russia,  after  the 
manner  of  fanatical  libellers  at  home ;  but  it  is  well 
within  the  mark  to  say  there  was  a  great  deal  too 
much  guzzling  of  vodka  in  the  realm  of  the  Czar  and 
that  it  did  infinite  moral,  physical,  and  industrial 
harm. 

The  working  classes  of  Russia  gasped  and  were 
dry-mouthed  when  they  found  the  doors  of  every 
vodka  shop  in  the  Empire  bolted.  But  they  are  a 
docile  people.  The  command  of  the  Little  White 
Father  has  much  of  the  sanctity  of  religion  about 
it.  Whatever  is,  is  right.  So  Russia  accepted  the 
change,  not  enthusiastically,  but  because  it  was 
the  law. 

The  paeans  of  joy  over  the  sinner  that  repenteth 
were  heard  in  England  and  in  America,  but  not  in 
Russia.  Voluble  orators  and  profuse  penmen  at 
home  talked  and  wrote  about  Russia's  noble  sacrifice 
in  the  interests  of  the  nation — all  rubbish  !  There 
was  no  more  sacrifice  than  there  would  be  in  my 
case  if  a  doctor  told  me  that  my  life  depended  on  the 
authorities  taking  the  pipe,  which  I  am  smoking 
as  I  write,  out  of  my  mouth  and  made  it  impossible 
for  me  to  buy  another  ounce  of  tobacco.  I  would 
acquiesce,  but  I  hope  I  would  not  cackle  about 
sacrifice.  And  to  its  high  credit,  Russia  has  never 
posed  as  the  smug  "  converted  drunkard."  It  has 
stopped  drinking  for  the  simple  reason  there  is  no 
more  alcohol  to  be  obtained. 

Vodka  is  made  from  potatoes  or  rye,  and  con- 
tains 40  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  Towards  autumn  the 


TEETOTAL    RUSSIA  39 

scene  in  a  Russian  village  used  to  be  very  much 
like  that  in  a  wine-growing  district  in  France. 
Wagonloads  of  potatoes  were  brought  in  by  the 
peasants  and  put  in  long  tunnels  timber-lined  and 
covered  with  3  or  4  feet  of  earth  to  prevent  freezing. 
In  1913,  the  last  of  the  drunken  years,  there  were 
30,000  fiscal  drink  shops  and  the  consumption  from 
1904-1910  had  nearly  doubled.  The  gross  profit 
in  1910  from  vodka  was  £74,470,000  ;  the  net  profit 
£58,510,000  ;  so  nearly  one-third  of  State  revenue 
was  drawn  from  the  sale  of  liquor.  In  1913  the 
drink  bill  of  Russia  amounted  to  £150,000,000,  which 
seems  a  good  deal,  though  per  head  of  the  population 
the  amount  spent  is  the  least  in  Europe  save  Norway. 
Whilst  the  average  consumption  per  head  in  Great 
Britain  was  66s.  per  year,  that  of  Russia  was  only 
18s. 

But  the  mischief  was  that  whilst  Britons  spend 
their  money  over  many  kinds  of  drink,  but  mainly 
beer,  the  Russians  focused  on  raw  spirit.  In  the 
last  statistics  before  me,  I  see  the  Russian  breweries 
turned  out  232,330,000  gallons  of  ale  in  a  year, 
whilst  the  distilleries  turned  out  335,360,000  gallons 
of  spirits. 

This  great  consumption  of  vodka  had  for  a  long 
time  alarmed  public  men.  The  blessings  of  local 
option  were  tried — real  local  option,  and  not  one- 
sided, as  is  the  plan  usually  advanced  in  England — 
and  the  result  was  more  and  not  fewer  drink  shops. 

That  something  should  be  done  was  agreed.  But 
there  were  vested  interests,  the  farmers  who  grew  the 


40  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

rye  and  the  potatoes  from  which  the  vodka  was  made, 
and  the  Minister  of  Finance  who  got  £60,000,000  a 
year  from  the  monopoly.  Things  were  bad  in  the 
villages.  I  remember  seeing  that  the  chief  amuse- 
ment on  a  Sunday  afternoon  was  to  get  drunk. 

For  some  years  the  deputies  in  the  Duma  repre- 
senting agricultural  constituencies  had  been  pressing 
for  reforms,  and  a  Bill  was  passed  giving  local 
authorities  drastic  powers  to  regulate  hours,  even 
to  shut  the  vodka  shops  in  areas  where  there  was 
suffering  owing  to  a  failure  of  the  crops.  The 
Russian  House  of  Lords,  the  Council  of  the  Empire, 
welcomed  the  Bill  of  the  Duma.  It  approved  it. 
It  also  improved  it  by  giving  every  community 
local  option  either  to  restrict  or  prohibit,  and  women 
were  to  have  the  franchise  on  this  question.  Every- 
body knew  what  that  meant.  The  Minister  of 
Finance  was  nervous  about  his  revenue. 

It  was  a  tremendous  surprise  to  the  world  outside 
Russia  when  the  Czar  showed  his  personal  interest 
in  the  temperance  question  by  a  message  to  M. 
Barck,  the  Minister  of  Finance.  It  ran  : 

"  I  have  come  to  the  firm  conviction  that  the 
duty  lies  upon  me,  before  God  and  Russia,  to  intro- 
duce into  the  management  of  the  State  finances 
and  of  the  economic  problems  of  the  country  funda- 
mental reforms  for  the  welfare  of  my  beloved  people. 
It  is  not  meet  that  the  welfare  of  the  Exchequer 
should  be  dependent  on  the  ruin  of  the  spiritual 
and  productive  energies  of  my  loyal  subjects." 


TEETOTAL   RUSSIA  41 

The  Government,  to  gain  time  to  think  how  the 
wind  was  to  be  raised,  showed  British  Parliamentary 
ingenuity  by  having  the  Bill  referred  to  a  joint 
committee  of  both  Houses.  Then  the  war  exploded 
on  the  world. 

Whilst  mobilisation  was  on  the  liquor  shops  were 
closed  as  a  precaution — but  they  have  never  been 
opened  since.  In  the  middle  of  October,  1914,  came 
the  order  of  the  Czar  prohibiting  "  for  ever  "  the 
State  having  anything  to  do  with  vodka.  But  local 
authorities  were  (except  in  camp  areas)  to  have 
the  right  to  allow  beer  to  be  sold,  or  to  stop  drink 
sales  altogether  if  public  opinion  were  strong  in  that 
direction. 

All  the  great  towns  instantly  exercised  their 
powers  by  turning  the  key  on  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
beverages  in  their  districts.  Some  country  districts, 
however,  are  slow  to  come  into  line.  The  joke  is — 
and  it  is  something  of  a  joke — that  the  authorities 
in  the  Czar's  own  village,  Tsarkoe  Selo,  have  allowed 
drinking  to  continue  in  their  area. 

Though,  in  general  phrase,  all  Russia  is  now 
teetotal,  important  questions  are  being  raised.  At 
the  very  time  the  Empire  needs  more  money  the 
better  part  of  half  a  hundred  millions  income  a  year 
is  lopped  off.  There  is  no  income-tax  in  Russia,  and 
that  evidence  of  advanced  civilisation  will  probably 
be  adopted  to  make  good  the  gap  in  the  national 
revenue. 

That  Russia  will  continue  to  be  strictly  teetotal, 
nobody  believes.  The  sale  of  light  beers  and  wines 


42  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

is  fairly  certain  to  be  allowed  in  time.  But  it  is 
a  matter  of  doubt  whether  ever  again  the  sale  of 
spirits  of  any  kind  will  be  permitted. 

Vodka  was  the  curse  of  Russia,  and  with  its 
departure  Russia  is  like  a  man  joying  in  new  strength 
after  a  desponding  illness. 

As  one  who  has  travelled  all  over  Russia,  knowing 
it  in  peace  time,  time  of  revolution,  and  time  of  war, 
I  have  to  report  that  prohibition  has  been  good  for 
the  country.  I  do  not  imagine  there  is  one  person 
in  a  hundred  thousand  who  would  raise  his  hand 
to  return  to  the  old  condition  of  things.  There 
has  been  a  considerable  decrease  in  crime  since 
Russia  became  teetotal ;  the  number  of  cases  of 
insanity  has  declined ;  the  suicides  are  reduced  in 
number. 

During  all  the  time  I  was  in  Russia,  although  I  ran 
into  varying  degrees  of  opinion,  I  met  no  one  who 
disputed  the  benefits  of  the  change.  Manufacturers 
told  me  that  enforced  abstinence  increased  industrial 
efficiency  by  25  per  cent.  Working-men  earn  more, 
and  though  the  war  has  increased  the  cost  of  living, 
their  families  are  better  off  than  before  the  war, 
because  none  of  the  hard- earned  roubles  go  in 
vodka. 

I  have  come  across  few  things  more  amusingly 
pathetic  than  men,  who  have  been  "  soakers  "  for 
years,  finding  themselves  with  money  which  they 
really  didn't  know  what  to  do  with  because  the  usual 
channel  of  expenditure  is  closed  to  them.  The  Russian 
workman  is  a  simple-minded,  good  fellow,  and  it 


TEETOTAL  IRUSSIA  43 

is  really  a  fact  that  in  many  cases  he  stopped  work 
because  he  was  getting  money  that  he  had  no  use 
for.  His  imagination  was  limited.  But  gradually 
he  bought  himself  another  pair  of  trousers,  and  his 
wife  a  coat  and  a  gaudy  handkerchief  to  tie  over 
her  head,  then  a  blue  shirt  for  himself  and  boots 
for  the  children,  and  ultimately  a  gramophone. 
He  sees  all  these  changes  in  his  life  and  his  "  missis 
and  kiddies"  better  fed.  He  is  working  no  harder 
than  he  did  formerly,  and  he  feels  there  is  something 
of  a  miracle  at  work. 

He  is  getting  an  idea  how  much  he  used  to  spend 
in  vodka.  He  can  hardly  believe  it,  but  he  sees  the 
consequence,  and  he  really  does  not  want  to  go 
back  to  the  stuff.  The  Russian  woman  is  just  as 
sprightly  with  her  tongue  as  her  sister  in  other  lands, 
and  "  mother "  is  very  explicit  what  she  will  do 
to  anybody  who  opens  the  vodka  shops  again.  Pawn- 
shops are  doing  badly.  The  latest  returns  of  the 
savings-banks  show  that  the  deposits  have  increased 
sixfold.  The  poorer  folk  of  Russia  put  in  the  savings- 
banks  over  £50,000,000  more  during  the  first  year 
of  the  war  than  they  did  during  the  year  before  the 
war. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   FIGHT  FOR   TRADE 

THE  chief  thing  which  took  me  to  the  land  of  the 
Czar  was  to  look  round  and  study  the  ways  whereby 
the  commercial  relationship  between  Great  Britain 
and  Russia  could  be  improved. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  attitude  of 
those  who  exclaim  :  "  Let  us  concentrate  on  the  war. 
Let  us  think  of  nothing  but  the  means  to  defeat 
Germany,  and  it  will  be  time  enough  when  that  is 
done  to  sit  down  and  consider  how  we  will  get  Russia 
to  buy  more  of  our  goods." 

That,  however,  will  be  too  late,  and  many  business 
men,  giving  an  eye  to  the  future — having  a  dread  of  the 
inevitable  industrial  slump  at  home  when  the  fighting 
is  finished,  and  shipyards  and  factories  are  no  longer 
strained  in  building  and  making  munitions  of  war, 
and  several  million  men  lay  down  their  arms  and 
want  to  return  to  their  former  trades — are  looking  to 
Russia  as  an  outlet  to  British  industrial  activities. 

Russia  is  an  agricultural  and  not  a  manufacturing 
country.  True  she  has  woollen  and  cotton  mills  and 
iron  works  and  oil  fields.  But  a  thousand  and  one 
things  needed  in  modern  civilisation,  from  heavy  loco- 
motives to  artificial  teeth,  she  has  to  import  from 
other  countries.  And  in  the  main  in  the  past  she 


THE    FIGHT   FOR    TRADE  45 

has  bought  from  Germany.  The  statistics  of  German 
trade  with  Russia  during  the  last  thirty  years  is  a 
panorama  of  amazing  progress.  The  market  was  so 
stocked  with  German  things  before  the  war  broke 
out  that,  except  in  particular  instances,  there  is  no 
shortage  of  wares,  though  that  has  not  prevented 
the  prices  being  increased.  But  Germany,  like 
ourselves,  is  busy  making  weapons,  and  she  has 
little  chance  to  attend  to  her  export  trade.  So 
in  a  few  months,  no  matter  how  willing  the  Russian 
purchaser  will  be  to  pay  the  extra  cost  owing  to 
the  heavy  duty,  there  must  be  a  shortage.  America, 
which  hitherto  has  confined  her  operations  in  Russia 
to  locomotives,  rails,  and  agricultural  machinery* 
is  jumping  in.  One  of  the  biggest  hotels  in  Petrograd 
seems  to  be  half  full  of  American  business  men, 
seeing  how  they  are  going  to  get  a  grip  of  the  general 
trade  whilst  the  European  nations  have  one  another 
by  the  throat.  In  Paris  there  recently  sat  a  Govern- 
ment committee,  with  M.  Meline  as  chairman,  care* 
fully  developing  a  plan  which  it  is  hoped  will  be  put 
into  operation  when  peace  is  proclaimed,  so  that 
the  commercial  interests  of  France  in  Russia  may 
be  improved. 

In  England  we  have  friendly  societies  for  main- 
taining amiability  between  Russia  and  ourselves. 
There  is  a  Russian  section  of  the  London  Chamber 
of  Commerce.  There  is  much  talk  about  the  need 
of  learning  the  Russian  language.  There  are  associa- 
tions of  traders  who  export  to  Russia.  But  he 
is  a  quickly  satisfied  man  who  believes  that  all  is 


46  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

being  done  which  should  be  done  to  provide  that 
Russia  shall  be  an  enlarged  market  for  British  wares. 
Just  as  there  are  people  in  England  who  swear 
that  never  again  will  they  purchase  anything  of 
German  make,  so  there  are  Russians,  though  less 
pronounced,  who  hold  the  same  opinion.  Those 
British  manufacturers  who  rely  on  Russia  refusing 
German  goods  after  the  war,  and  so  making  an 
opening  for  more  English  goods  had  better  drop 
that  pretty  idea,  and  at  once.  Russian  traders, 
like  the  majority  of  our  traders  at  home,  will  buy  in 
the  cheapest  and  most  serviceable  market,  and  care 
very  little  for  the  place  of  origin. 

"  Ah,"  I  have  heard  men  contend,  "  but  Russia 
is  sure  to  give  a  preference  to  her  Allies  by  putting 
a  heavier  tax  on  the  manufactured  articles  from 
Germany  which  are  sent  across  her  frontier." 

At  first  thought  I  was  disposed  to  enthusiasm  over 
the  abolition  of  the  "  favoured  nation  clause," 
whereby  every  nation  has  a  right  to  claim  equality 
at  the  Customs  House.  It  appeared  a  fine  scheme 
that  the  Allies,  having  cemented  their  friendship 
with  the  blood  of  their  sons,  should  behave  to  each 
other  as  the  British  Dominions  behave  to  the  Mother 
Country — show  preference  to  each  other  in  tariffs 
to  the  detriment  of  outsiders.  But  how  about  the 
neutral  countries  ?  I  can  vision  America  kicking 
and  protesting  at  being  handicapped  in  her  com- 
petition with  England.  "  What  have  we  done  wrong 
that  we  should  be  penalised  ?  "  will  be  asked.  If 
America  and  other  neutral  countries  are  allowed  in  on 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   TRADE  47 

equal  terms  the  preference  will  have  gone.  And 
regarding  conditions  of  trade  with  a  sober  mind,  I 
cannot  bring  myself  to  see  that  when  the  terms 
of  peace  are  signed  the  Allies  will  be  able  to  say  to 
Germany,  "  We  are  having  a  cessation  of  bloodshed, 
but  we  intend  to  pursue  the  war  against  you  in 
regard  to  your  trade.  We  have  humbled  you,  and 
we  are  going  to  shake  hands  with  you  as  a  sign  the 
battle  is  over,  but  we  propose  'to  cripple  you  not 
only  in  armaments — for  the  safety  of  the  world — 
but  in  your  industrial  enterprise,  so  you  will  not  be 
permitted  to  compete  with  other  nations  on  equal 
terms." 

I  do  not  see  the  possibility  of  any  such  arrange- 
ment. Russia  herself  is  not  likely  to  be  a  party  to 
it.  It  would  be  England  and  France  which  would 
get  the  benefit,  and,  as  prices  might  be  increased 
owing  to  decrease  in  fierce  competition  from  Germany, 
the  Russian  consumer  would  feel  he  was  putting 
money  into  British  and  French  pockets  which  he 
could  retain  if  Germany  were  given  equal  right 
of  ingress.  Even  were  the  plan  adopted,  Germans 
would  get  round  the  tariff  barrier  by  trading  through 
a  neutral  country — say,  Sweden.  Preferential  treat- 
ment amongst  kin,  as  the  British  Empire,  is  right ; 
but  I  am  persuaded  that  differential  treatment  of 
nation  toward  nation  when  at  peace  would  lead  to 
such  a  tangle  of  complications  and  diplomatic 
bickerings  that  it  could  not  possibly  continue  for 
any  length  of  time. 

Let  it  give  satisfaction  to  British  manufacturers 


48  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

that  in  Russia  the  word  English  is  synonymous 
with  excellence.  A  Russian  will  use  the  word  as 
an  adjective  descriptive  of  something  that  is  absolutely 
genuine,  much  as  we  use  the  phrase  "  a  white  man  " 
as  indicative  of  absolute,  above-board  straight- 
forwardness. But  when  he  has  said  that — well, 
the  Russian  generally  goes  and  buys  German 
wares. 

Remember  that  at  one  time  Britain  had  practi- 
cally all  the  market  for  manufactured  articles. 
Recently  she  has  been  a  poor  second  to  Germany, 
and  will  be  so  again  after  the  war  unless  she  wakes 
up. 

Take  this  casual  but  significant  fact :  One  day 
at  luncheon  in  a  restaurant  I  met  two  Americans, 
one  representing  a  boot  manufactory  and  the  other 
representing  a  firm  which  specialises  in  tinned  foods. 
I  took  tea  with  a  French  acquaintance,  and  although 
he  did  not  reveal  his  special  work  he  was  open  in  say- 
ing that  he  was  in  Petrograd  for  commerce.  In  the 
evening  I  dined  with  three  Danes,  one  representing 
the  Chamber  of  Manufacturers  at  Copenhagen  and 
the  other  two  being  principals  in  big  engineering 
works  in  Denmark,  getting  ready  "  for  the  great 
business  there  will  be  after  the  war,"  as  one  said  to 
me.  British  manufacturers  will  also  want  to 
"  have  a  look  in,"  but  they  will  once  more  have  to 
face  German  competition.  The  excellence  of  their 
goods  will  carry  them  a  long  way.  But  they  had 
better  understand  why  it  is  that  in  the  recent  past 
in  proportionate  progress  of  developing  trade  with 


THE    FIGHT   FOR    TRADE  49 

Russia    they    have   been    far   outdistanced   by   the 
Germans. 

Russia  and  Germany  are  contiguous,  and  that  is 
some  advantage  in  freight  charges.  But  the  real 
cause  of  German  success  lies  deeper.  All  the  Russian 
business  men  with  whom  I  talked — most  friendly  to 
Britain,  but  never  forgetting  their  first  object  in 
business  was  to  make  money — told  me  the  same  story, 
which  may  be  separated  under  three  heads  : 

1.  The  Englishman  will  not  adapt  himself  to 

Russian  requirements. 

2.  He  does  not  speak  Russian. 

3.  He  wants  to  see  the  cash,  and  will  not  give 

long  credit. 

It  is  the  same  tale  in  Russia  as  I  have  heard  in 
many  parts  of  the  world.  The  British  manufacturer 
turns  out  a  good  article ;  he  is  convinced  of  that ; 
he  is  not  going  to  make  rubbish  for  any  foreigner, 
and  the  foreigner  can  take  his  goods  or  leave 
them.  In  a  word,  he  is  so  conservative  that  he  is 
not  to  be  shaken  from  the  belief  that  what  is 
good  enough  for  England  ought  to  be  good  enough 
for  Russia. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  the  customer  who  decides. 
When  I  buy  a  hat  in  London  it  is  I  who  say  what 
kind  of  hat  I  want,  and  not  the  shopman.  Russian 
tastes  are  different  from  English  tastes,  and  although 
the  Russian  would  prefer  to  buy  from  England,  he 
buys  (did  buy,  and  will  buy  again)  from  Germany, 
because  the  Germans  will  give  him  exactly  what  he 
wants  and  the  Englishman,  with  exceptions,  will  not. 


50  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

"  It  is  like  this,"  said  a  Russian  to  me,  picking 
up  a  cardboard  cigarette-box  on  my  writing-table. 
"  The  Englishman  will  come  along  seeking  orders  to 
make,  say,  cigarette-boxes.  He  can  make  a  good 
box.  But  the  Russian  trader  wants  something 
inferior  and  much  cheaper.  Oh,  the  English  firm 
cannot  alter  its  machinery  to  turn  out  a  different 
shaped  box  of  poorer  material  unless  a  gigantic  order 
is  given.  No,  the  Russian  cannot  give  a  big  order  ; 
it  must  be  a  small  order,  and  there  must  be  two  years' 
credit — the  Englishman  smiles  and  nothing  comes 
of  it.  Now,  that  applies  to  nearly  everything  we 
import.  We  want  cheap  things,  we  want  them 
made  to  suit  our  fancy — in  a  way  that  may  seem 
stupid  to  you — and  we  want  long  credit.  But 
your  people  say  :  '  Oh,  after  all,  the  Russian  trade 
is  insignificant  with  our  world  trade,  and  we  are  not 
going  to  turn  our  works  upside  down  and  make  an 
article  on  which  we  would  not  care  for  the  name  of 
our  firm  to  appear  for  a  small  order  !  '  So  be  it. 
The  German  comes  along.  He  probably  thinks  we 
are  unwise  in  wanting  a  poorly  made  box  or  patterns 
on  linen  goods  which  he  thinks  atrocious,  just  as 
the  Englishman  does ;  or  he  may,  also  like  the 
Englishman,  think  it  unwise  to  have  cast-iron  fittings 
on  machinery  instead  of  brass  ;  but  he  never,  never 
forgets  he  is  selling  to  Russians,  and  he  is  willing  to 
take  the  order  and  make  just  what  the  Russian 
wants.  And  he  is  willing  to  take  a  small  order  and  to 
give  long  credit,  because  before  the  money  falls  due 
more  things  will  be  wanted,  and  the  German  firm 


THE    FIGHT   FOR   TRADE  51 

will  get  that  order.  Why,  sir,  the  agent  of  a  German 
firm  will  take  an  order  for  two  yards  of  ribbon  and 
send  specially  to  Berlin  for  it.  There  is  the  first 
principle  of  German  success." 

Now,  take  the  language  question.  All  the  repre- 
sentatives of  German  firms  spoke  Russian.  Many  of 
the  men  were  from  the  Baltic  provinces,  and  were  bi- 
lingual, as  a  matter  of  course.  Some,  a  few,  British 
representatives  speak  Russian.  But  the  majority 
of  British  firms  are  dependent  upon  German-Russian 
agents,  for  German,  though  forbidden  now,  was 
the  commerical  language  in  the  big  towns,  and  very 
likely  will  be  so  again  when  a  halt  is  called  to  the 
fighting.  British  principals  go  over  to  Russia  (I 
am  writing  of  pre-war  times)  seeking  contracts. 
Rarely  they  speak  any  language  but  their  own,  and 
it  is  a  thousand  to  one  they  do  not  speak  Russian. 
Doing  business  through  an  interpreter,  especially 
when  the  measurements  of  the  two  countries  are 
different,  puts  a  bar  to  that  personal  relationship 
which  is  so  useful  when  two  men,  wanting  to  make 
a  deal  with  each  other,  can  sit  down  and  in  a  friendly 
talk  thrash  the  matter  out. 

In  comparison  with  the  92,000  Germans  with 
passports  who  besieged  Russia  with  goods  in  1912, 
only  13,000  English  went  over,  and,  with  permits 
to  remain  a  short  time,  no  fewer  than  2|  million 
Germans  stayed  in  Russia.  German  travellers  will 
go  far  afield  for  small  orders,  armed  with  circulars 
for  things  which  may  possibly  please.  The  English 
Consul  in  Baku  said :  "  I  have  met  (German) 


52  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

commercial  travellers  who  represented  as  many  as 
ten  different  firms,  all,  of  course,  in  different  lines 
of  business.  I  knew  of  a  traveller  who  dealt  in 
haberdashery,  pens,  fancy  goods,  boots,  scent  and 
lathe  tools,  all  for  different  firms.  His  only  qualifi- 
cations were  that  he  was  a  good  salesman  and  had 
a  knowledge  of  the  language."  He  went  on  to  say 
that  correspondence,  price  lists  and  circulars  in 
English  are  constantly  brought  to  him  for  trans- 
lation, and  he  felt  sure  that  for  every  one  brought 
hundreds  never  reached  him  but  went  into  the  waste 
basket. 

Russia  did  foreign  trading  to  the  extent  of  a 
sum  exceeding  £264,000,000  ;  the  exports  averaging 
£158,000,000;  imports,  £106,000,000.  Of  her  total 
exports,  chiefly  provisions  and  semi-manufactured 
articles,  about  30  per  cent,  went  to  Germany,  and  the 
latter  sent  to  her,  chiefly  in  manufactured  goods  and 
machinery,  about  50  per  cent,  of  her  imports.  The 
oversea  commerce  was  mostly  under  the  British  flag 
(35  per  cent.),  while  Germany  took  16  per  cent,  and 
Russia  10  per  cent.  In  1910  we  exported  to  Russia 
goods  of  the  value  of  £7,610,000.  In  1914  the  value 
had  only  risen  to  £9,850,000.  Those  from  Germany 
increased  in  the  same  years  from  £21,370,000  to 
£37,270,000. 

There  is  going  to  be  a  greater  trade  with  Russia, 
and  if  Englishmen  want  their  full  share,  steps  must 
be  taken  now,  and  not  after  the  war,  to  have  repre- 
sentatives in  Russia  who  are  Englishmen  speaking 
Russian.  Individual  firms  should  now  send  out 


THE    FIGHT   FOR   TRADE  53 

young  men  in  whom  they  have  confidence  to  learn 
the  language.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  the  Govern- 
ment to  do  anything.  The  London  Chamber  of 
Commerce  is  doing  something.  But  the  Associated 
Chambers  of  Commerce  and  the  chambers  of  com- 
merce in  industrial  districts,  which  have  in  the  past 
had  commercial  relations  with  Russia,  or  intend 
to  make  a  bid  for  trade  in  the  future,  might  take 
into  serious  consideration  the  establishment  of 
travelling  scholarships  to  send  young  fellows  for  a 
year  to  learn  Russian. 

Commercial  negotiations  by  correspondence, 
especially  when  there  has  to  be  a  translation  in 
between,  may  be  taken  as  hampering,  for  the  Russian 
trader  likes  to  be  face  to  face  with  the  man  with 
whom  he  is  making  a  contract.  It  is  no  good  sending 
drawings  and  specifications,  with  much  shuffling 
in  the  post,  for  alternative.  What  is  wanted,  what 
brings  success,  as  it  brought  business  to  Germans, 
is  to  have  a  man  on  the  spot,  speaking  the  native 
tongue,  who  can  quickly  understand  what  is  needed, 
and  have  authority  to  make  modifications.  .  One 
day  a  Russian,  representing  an  English  firm,  told 
me  this  experience.  Russia  wanted  millions  of  bags 
for  the  war.  The  bag-makers  of  Britain  were  after 
the  contract.  His  own  firm  wanted  it.  But  the 
bags  had  to  be  made  in  a  certain  way  and  of  a  par- 
ticular texture.  He  might  have  obtained  a  contract 
if  the  British  firm  would  comply  with  the  necessities. 
He  spent  a  hundred  roubles  on  a  telegram  seeking 
a  decision.  In  two  days  he  got  a  reply  saying  an 


54  RUSSIA   OF    TO-DAY 

answer  would  be  sent  next  day,  "  but  it  has  not 
come  yet,"  he  added.  Of  course,  the  English  firms 
were  working  at  top  speed  for  home  requirements  ; 
the  only  point  of  the  incident  is  that  it  is  no  good 
seeking  for  Russian  trade  unless  you  are  in  a  position 
to  supply  it. 

Then  the  question  of  credit,  which  has  as  much 
bearing  as  anything  on  Russian  commerce.  Write 
it  down  as  wrong  that  there  should  be  abnormal 
length  of  credit ;  it  is  just  as  bad  for  the  trader  as 
for  the  manufacturer.  But  the  Russian  is  a  slow 
payer,  and  he  works  on  credit,  and  you  are  not  going 
to  get  him  to  change,  especially  when  he  finds  a 
competitor  of  yours  willing  to  give  credit.  I  suppose, 
at  the  best,  English  manufacturers  want  a  third  on 
account  when  the  order  is  given,  a  third  on  delivery, 
and  the  final  third  at  six  months.  Now,  the  Germans 
have  had  (and  may  be  expected  to  have  again)  rami- 
fications all  over  the  Russian  Empire,  and  when  an 
order  was  received  and  they  learned  from  banks,  and 
their  own  agents,  that  a  man's  credit  was  good,  they 
did  not  ask  for  the  money  for  eighteen  months  ; 
they  would  extend  the  credit  to  two  years,  even  three 
years.  The  fact  that  there  is  easy  credit  makes  the 
trader  friendly,  his  orders  go  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, and  thus  Germany  in  the  past,  by  studying 
Russian  susceptibilities,  laid  its  hold  on  Russian 
commerce. 

I  know  most  of  the  argument  that  can  be  pro- 
duced against  the  German  methods.  My  answer 
is,  that  the  Germans  got  the  trade.  By  the  develop- 


Photograph  by  A-vanzo  &  Co.,  Petrograd 

ASSASSINATION    CHURCH    IN    PETROGRAD 

(Erected  on  the  site  of  the  assassination  of  Alexander  II.) 


THE   FIGHT   FOR   TRADE  55 

merit  of  British  banks  in  Russia  much  can  be  done 
to  give  security,  to  have  manufacturers  ready  to 
fight  Germany  commercially  with  its  own  weapon, 
and  to  extend  the  system  of  credit.  Russians  are 
willing  to  trade  with  England  in  preference  to  Ger- 
many ;  but  Russian  traders  cannot  be  expected  to 
learn  English,  or  to  change  all  their  customs. 


CHAPTER  V 

HOW   GERMANY   CAPTURED    THE   RUSSIAN   MARKET 

IN  the  vaults  of  the  Russian  State  Bank  is  gold 
representing  about  £170,000,000,  which  is  the  biggest 
nest-egg  of  the  real  metal  there  is  in  the  world. 
But  you  may  travel  from  Petrograd  to  Vladivostok 
and  not  see  enough  gilt  currency  to  pay  for  a  luncheon 
at  the  Savoy.  It  is  paper,  paper  everywhere,  with 
never  a  golden  chink. 

If,  in  England,  a  frowsy  and  generally  unkempt 
man,  with  uncleaned  boots  and  a  collarless  shirt, 
entered  a  bank  for  the  purpose  of  changing  a  £100 
note  the  police  would  be  sent  for.  In  Russia  you 
can  meet  old  fellows,  bearded,  hands  stunted  with 
labour,  flannel- shirted,  top-booted,  peak-capped,  all 
suggestive  of  the  artisan  class,  who  are  carrying  a 
couple  of  thousand  pounds  in  their  pouches  for 
current  expenses. 

Russia  has  some  fine  joint-stock,  commercial, 
and  other  banks,  and  in  impressiveness  of  structure 
they  rival  the  granite-and-gilt  palaces  of  our  in- 
surance companies.  But  your  ordinary  provincial 
business  Russian  is  shy  of  banks.  He  does  not 
doubt  their  honesty.  To  hand  his  money  over  a 
counter,  however,  and  get  nothing  but  a  hieroglyphic 
on  a  sheet  of  paper  for  it,  and  to  be  aware  that  the 
56 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN  MARKET  57 

money  is  not  stored  in  a  cellar,  but  is  lent  out,  is 
invested  in  property  which  may  not  be  a  success — 
well,  he  will  agree  it  is  right  to  bank,  but  he  personally 
prefers  to  keep  his  belongings.  So  there  are  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Russian  business  men  who  have 
never  had  a  banking  account  in  their  lives,  and  whose 
wealth  is  represented  by  high-denomination  notes 
in  a  leather  bag,  attached  to  a  string,  and  carried 
round  the  neck. 

Consequently  the  cheque  system,  as  we  under- 
stand it  in  England,  except  in  limited  instances  in  the 
great  cities,  is  practically  non-existent  in  Russia.  It 
fascinates  Ivan  Ivanovich,  and  he  admits  it  is  wonder- 
ful, but  he  regards  a  cheque  as  a  kind  of  conjuring 
trick,  and  is  not  positive  there  is  not  some  jiggery- 
pokery  with  a  victim  at  the  end.  That  a  man 
should  buy  a  motor-car  by  handing  the  dealer  a 
piece  of  paper  with  the  amount  written  on  it ;  that 
the  dealer  should  pay  his  shop  rent  with  another 
piece  of  paper ;  and  that  the  landlord  should  stay 
at  an  hotel  and  pay  his  bill  with  a  further  piece  of 
paper  to  the  proprietor,  who  may  happen  to  be  the 
man  who  has  bought  the  motor-car,  is  a  system  of 
finance  which  nine  out  of  ten  Russians  find  it  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  follow. 

The  president  of  one  of  the  biggest  banks  in 
Russia,  who  appreciated  the  cheque  system  and 
would  like  to  see  it  generally  adopted,  asked  me 
if  it  were  true  that  in  London  it  was  possible  to 
go  into  a  shop  and  make  extensive  purchases — 
admitting  you  were  known  to  the  shopkeeper— and 


58  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

carry  away  the  goods  after  scribbling  a  cheque  ?  It 
was  impossible  in  Russia.  When  I  told  him  I  knew 
a  bank  in  the  Strand,  which  I  occasionally  entered, 
put  a  penny  on  the  counter  and  got  a  cheque  on 
which  I  directed  £10  to  be  paid  to  "  self,"  and  with- 
out the  slightest  investigation  the  money  was  handed 
over  to  me,  he  made  a  gesture  which  I  took  to  signify 
either  that  the  British  were  the  most  extraordinary 
of  peoples,  or  that  he  lamented  that  the  Russians 
could  not  inspire  such  confidence. 

So  the  Russian  has  either  to  carry  a  pouch  of 
bank-notes  and  pay  all  his  accounts  in  cash,  or  he 
gives  a  bill  to  pay  in  three  or  six  months,  and  this 
he  prefers.  He  may  be  a  large  depositor  in  a  bank, 
but  when  ultimately  he  meets  his  obligations  he  re- 
news the  bill  or  draws  the  necessary  amount  in 
cash.  One  advantage  is,  that  he  is  not  able  blithely 
to  sign  cheques  and  then  receive  a  shock  by  a  polite 
intimation  from  his  bank  that  his  account  is  con- 
siderably overdrawn.  Russian  banks  do  not  en- 
courage overdrafts,  but  they  will  discount  a  bill  at 
high  interest. 

See  the  hampering  to  business  the  absence  of  a 
general  cheque  system  means.  A  big  establish- 
ment in  Petrograd  purchases  skins  from  a  merchant 
in  Siberia.  It  does  not  pay  him  by  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  amount  sent  by  post,  which  will  be 
honoured  on  presentation  to  a  bank.  The  Petrograd 
merchant  is  sufficiently  advanced  to  have  a  bank 
book,  and  very  likely  a  cheque  book.  But  not  the 
skin  merchant,  nor  the  farmer,  nor  the  cattle-ranger 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET  59 

in  rural  parts.  So  the  big  merchant  employs  an 
individual  called  an  artelschik.  These  artelschiks 
are  a  class  who  have  to  provide  heavy  guarantees 
for  honesty  and  integrity  ;  they  are  like  glorified 
commissionaires  in  civilian  dress.  To  such  a  man 
is  entrusted  the  duty  of  carrying  the  money  to  the 
seller  and  paying  in  cash.  It  is  the  same  all  over 
the  country.  You  may  employ  an  artelschik  to 
go  round  the  town  and  pay  bills.  He  may  have 
to  go  to  Odessa  and  journey  to  Tiflis  to  collect  money, 
and  then  pay  another  person  up  at  Nijni-Novgorod. 

Using  artelschiks  instead  of  cheques  is  expensive. 
It  is  thought  to  be  safer.  Russian  business  men,  how- 
ever, playing  for  safety,  are  in  fact  restricting  their 
own  commerce.  That  public  opinion  is  being  educated 
is  undoubted.  The  use  of  drafts  from  bank  to  bank 
is  on  the  increase.  Still  four-fifths  of  the  big  trade 
of  Russia — I  leave  out  of  account  personal  and  small 
purchases — is  done  by  bill  following  on  bill  until,  with 
accumulated  charges,  there  is  eventual  payment  in 
cash. 

The  things  Russians  constantly  dinned  into  my 
head  as  necessary  if  Britain  is  to  get  the  reward 
of  alliance  after  the  war,  is  that  Englishmen  must 
adapt  themselves  to  Russian  ways.  Some  adapta- 
bility, however,  is  required  on  the  other  side,  espe- 
cially in  financial  matters.  Russia  cannot  expect  to 
play  the  increasingly  great  role  in  the  commerce  of  the 
world  she  is  entitled  to  play  if  she  is  not  ready  swiftly 
to  adapt  herself  to  more  western  methods.  But  I 
must  say  that  Russians  are  not  stubborn  in  their 


60  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

conservative  attitude.  Bankers  themselves  are  fully 
alive  to  the  needs  of  the  situation.  They  point 
to  the  changes  that  have  been  effected  within  the 
last  generation,  remind  you  how  difficult  it  is  to  alter 
the  habits  of  a  people,  and  express  the  hope  that  by 
degrees  all  will  be  improved. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  one  of 
the  products  of  the  war  is  a  wave  of  public  opinion 
that  Russia  should  cease  to  be  dependent  on  the 
foreigner.  Look  round  the  public  works  of  Russia, 
and  there  you  find  English  capital  and  German 
goods.  I  glanced  from  my  window  and  saw  the 
Petrograd  municipal  electric  tramcars  race  by — 
financed  from  London  and  built  in  Berlin.  "  We 
will  do  these  things  for  ourselves  in  the  future," 
is  the  expression  of  a  laudable  public  spirit.  But 
Russia  cannot.  She  has  not  the  capital.  She  is 
not  a  country  rich  in  capital ;  she  lives  on  margins  ; 
and  that  is  why  she  seeks  long  credit  when  pur- 
chasing from  abroad  and,  in  her  internal  business, 
lets  bill  follow  bill  in  interminable  procession.  So 
whilst  one  runs  into  one  stratum  of  opinion  that  the 
exploitation  of  Russia  by  the  foreigner  must  cease, 
one  encounters  another  stratum,  not  so  large,  but 
far  more  influential,  that  the  salvation  of  Russia 
will  be  a  great  inflow  of  foreign  capital  to  assist 
in  developing  her  resources. 

Taking  a  practical  view  there  is  no  doubt  the 
latter  course  will  be  followed.  Financiers  and  in- 
vestors outside  Russia  will  provide  the  Empire 
with  all  the  money  needed  if  there  is  a  prospect 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET  61 

of  fair  return.  One  of  the  deterrents  which  will 
operate  against  British  confidence  being  so  free  as 
in  other  markets  is  the  prohibition  of  foreign  control 
of  corporations  in  Russia.  You  will  find  banks  of 
English  and  French  foundation,  conducted  with  as 
high  honour  as  is  banking  at  home — with  an  inclina- 
tion, however,  toward  speculation,  especially  in 
wheat  futures — but  the  effective  control  is  by  law 
in  the  hands  of  Russians.  I  put  the  question  quite 
bluntly  to  a  banking  magnate  in  Petrograd,  why  if 
Russia  was  willing  to  have  the  advantage  of  foreign 
banks,  she  did  not  allow  the  foreigner  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  Russian  management  ?  He  talked 
politely  about  the  national  dislike  of  the  idea,  rather 
than  about  the  fear  that  foreign  financiers  would  get 
such  a  hold  on  affairs  that  they  would  affect  policy. 

It  is  this  resistance  to  the  foreigner  that  explains 
the  difficulties  put  in  the  way  of  the  foreigner  desirous 
of  setting  up  a  factory  in  Russia.  But  whilst  this 
banker  of  influence  admitted  the  claim  of  the  British 
capitalist  to  have  some  voice,  and  rather  approved  of 
my  suggestion  that  there  should  be  one  or  two 
British  directors,  if  not  to  control,  at  any  rate  to 
have  a  watching  interest  in  their  investments,  I 
found  there  wras  a  deeper  objection.  As  I  am  writing 
as  straightforwardly  as  I  can,  there  is  no  benefit 
to  be  gained  by  sticking  an  important  factor  on 
one  side.  The  real  objection  is  to  the  Jew.  The 
Jews  are  under  certain  disabilities  in  Russia.  The 
English  Jew  is  an  important  factor  in  British  finance. 
The  Russians  believe — rightly  or  wrongly  I  do  not 


62  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

argue,  but  they  believe  it — that  if  there  were 
British  control  of  British  financial  corporations  in 
Russia  it  would  mean  Jewish  control,  and  at  that 
the  Russians  boggle. 

The  banking  system  and  industrial  progress 
should  go  hand  in  hand.  Though  Britain  has 
found  most  of  the  money  in  the  past  for  Russian 
development,  it  was  the  German  who  benefited  most 
of  all.  For  with  the  facilities  of  further  trade,  con- 
sequent on  the  coming  of  foreign  millions,  com- 
mercial banks  found  their  opportunity.  These  banks 
are  Russian ;  but  German-Russians  were  their 
originators  in  most  cases,  and  in  no  case  was  there 
a  branch  of  one  of  these  banks  where  there  was  not 
an  agent,  also  in  the  service  of  the  German  trading 
associations,  ready  to  provide  information  about 
local  conditions  and  the  stability  of  merchants. 

Commercial  banks  in  Russia,  as  I  have  indicated, 
are  showing  a  tendency  to  travel  beyond  their 
original  functions  and  to  finance  industrial  enterprises. 
To-day  there  are  over  fifty  commercial  banks,  with 
over  six  hundred  branches,  and  a  balance  of  about 
£700,000,000.  It  is  only  necessary  to  see  the  increase 
over  a  period  of  ten  years  and  the  rise  in  value  of 
deposits  to  comprehend  how,  with  all  its  vagaries 
and  restrictions,  Russian  commerce  has  been  ad- 
vancing. Banks  have  stimulated  trade.  The  big 
banks  have  shown  a  movement  towards  absorbing 
some  of  the  smaller  banks  ;  yet,  compared  with 
the  great  commercial  countries,  the  banking  system 
of  Russia,  though  encouraging  in  comparison  with 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET  63 

itself  some  years  ago  is,  in  a  country  of  such  dimen- 
sions, really  limited.  Though  there  are  several 
associations  at  work,  such  as  co-operative  societies 
amongst  small  farmers,  there  are  considerably  fewer 
than  a  thousand  legitimate  bank  branches  through- 
out the  whole  of  European  Russia,  with  a  white 
population  of  120,000,000.  In  a  broad  sense, 
therefore,  Russia  is  inadequately  supplied  with 
banks. 

Here,  then,  is  a  fair  chance  for  the  establishment 
of  more  British  banks,  with  ramifications  extending 
beyond  the  great  towns.  Russia  will  want  money 
from  abroad  to  reap  the  advantage  of  her  natural 
resources.  The  country  is  wide,  but  less  thinly 
populated  in  parts  than  is  Canada  in  parts,  and  yet 
the  Canadian  who  "  stockings "  all  his  money  is 
rare,  and  the  Canadian — no  matter  how  far  he  may 
be  from  a  small  town — who  has  to  be  paid  through 
the  services  of  an  individual  comparable  to  an 
artelschik  is  non-existent. 

The  provincial  dealers  and  the  farming  com- 
munity in  Russia  need  educating  as  to  the  value  of 
banks.  The  banks  which  will  be  of  service  will 
be  those  which  will  be  ready  to  give  a  helping  hand 
in  the  financing  of  industries.  At  the  same  time, 
if  of  British  foundation,  they  should  be  so  established 
as  to  be  a  medium  of  information  between  manu- 
facturer and  purchaser.  By  this  means,  British 
industries  must  benefit  through  the  provision  of  a 
wider  field  of  operations. 

.But    Russians    must    not    think    that    the    only 


64  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

object  of  the  foreigner  is  to  exploit  Russia.  That 
is  just  as  erroneous  as  to  allege  it  is  Russia's  desire 
to  exploit  foreign  capital.  Dropping  pleasant  talk 
about  friendly  relations,  it  is  a  matter  of  common 
interest.  Russia  has  the  country  to  be  developed, 
and  Britain  will  have  the  millions  to  aid  in  the 
development.  And  I  am  not  without  belief  that 
means  can  be  found  to  give  Britons  some  voice  in 
Russian  corporations  established  with  British  money, 
without  disturbing  the  perfectly  sound  Russian 
doctrine  that  the  country  shall  be  controlled  by 
Russians  without  outside  interference.  The  thing 
is  to  create  a  firmer  confidence  in  the  minds  of  London 
financiers,  and  that  is  within  the  power  of  the 
Russians. 

It  is  a  punishable  sin  to  speak  German  within  the 
Russian  Empire.  It  is,  however,  the  keen  ambition 
of  every  young  Russian  lad  and  girl  to  speak  English. 
All  through  the  winter  of  1914-15  anybody  who  could 
give  lessons  in  English  was  at  a  premium.  Humble 
teachers,  who  had  formerly  struggled  with  adversity, 
found  they  were  earning  £20  a  month.  The  stock 
of  English  primers  gave  out,  and  I  fancy  that  for  my 
little  Russo-English  dictionary  I  could  have  got  its 
weight  in — well,  in  one-rouble  paper  notes.  Russian- 
English  clerks  and  typists  are  in  the  heyday  of 
prosperity.  They  have  not  to  seek  jobs  ;  they  are 
woo'd  to  work.  A  year  ago  all  the  boys  who  intended 
to  go  into  business  learnt  German  at  school.  That 
is  now  the  forbidden  tongue,  but  parents  have 
presented  a  petition  to  the  education  authorities 


GERMANY    AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET  65 

praying  that  English  be  substituted.  English  is 
on  the  boom. 

There  is  good  business  in  the  translation  of 
English  catalogues  into  Russian.  "  But  what  a 
waste  of  time,"  sighed  a  humble  translator  to  me  ; 
"  I  can  change  the  English  measures  and  money  into 
Russian,  but  practically  all  your  exporters,  who 
have  not  agents  here,  quote  a  price  for  delivery 
on  the  railroad  in  England  or  at  the  dockside  of 
an  English  port.  The  Russian  merchant  at  Moscow, 
or  Yaroslav,  or  Kiev,  or  Samara  has  no  means  of 
providing  for  the  carriage  of  the  goods  from  an 
English  port  to  Russia.  What  the  Germans  always 
did  was  to  quote  a  price  for  delivery  in  Petrograd 
or  Moscow.  Tell  the  English  exporters  that  if  they 
want  to  improve  trade  they  must  quote  prices  for 
delivery  at  the  Russian  frontier  or  at  a  Russian  port. 
Otherwise,  it  is  nearly  all  a  waste  of  money  having 
these  catalogues  translated,  believe  me." 

I  noticed  a  little  alarm  amongst  second-genera- 
tion Russian-Englishmen  at  the  prospect  of  a  flock 
of  young  Britons,  who  are  learning  Russian  at  even- 
ing classes  under  London  Country  Council  auspices, 
flying  over  to  Petrograd  to  represent  English  firms. 
And  Russian-speaking  Englishmen  have  said  to 
me  :  "  We  think  we  might  be  trusted  to  look  after 
English  interests."  And  Russian  traders,  speaking 
no  language  but  their  own,  exclaim  :  "  Thank  the 
Lord,  we  have  got  rid  of  German  commercial  domina- 
tion !  We  are  not  going  to  place  ourselves  under 
the  domination  of  any  other  country." 


66  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  situation  is  becoming  exciting.  Cool  heads 
will  be  required  later  on,  or  there  will  be  differences 
in  regard  to  trade  between  the  Allies.  The  populace 
cries,  "  Give  us  British  goods."  The  trader  is 
willing,  if  they  are  to  be  obtained  cheaper  than 
German  goods  after  the  war.  Russian  manufacturers 
say,  "  Now's  our  chance  to  develop  home  industries, 
and,  though  we  admire  England,  we  are  not  going  to 
be  put  out  of  business  by  our  markets  being  flooded 
with  British  wares."  And  I  can  imagine  the  British 
manufacturer,  when  confronted  with  higher  tariffs 
than  ever,  rubbing  his  eyes  and  inquiring,  "  Is  this 
the  way  Russia  shows  her  friendship,  after  all  we 
have  done  for  her  ?  "  Matters  will  be  adjusted  on 
the  international  settling  day  ;  let  us  hold  tight  to 
that  conviction.  But  it  is  worth  while  noticing  how 
the  wind  is  playing  with  the  straws. 

The  shops  are  stuffed  with  German  goods — the 
inflow  of  the  manufactures  of  the  enemy  continues. 
But  you  cannot  find  a  shopkeeper  in  Petrograd 
who  has  even  a  tin  whistle  of  German  origin  for  sale 
in  his  store.  You  proceed  to  make  a  purchase.  "  It 
looks  rather  German,  doesn't  it  ?  "  you  ask.  "  Oh, 
no,  sir  ;  it  is  English  ;  it  has  come  all  the  way  from 
England,  and  that  is  why  it  is  not  so  cheap  1  " 
"  There  never  was  a  thing  produced  like  that  in 
England,"  you  add.  "  No  ?  "  the  shopman  says, 
incredulously,  "  then  it  must  be  American,"  coming 
to  the  conclusion  he  had  mistaken  the  nationality 
of  his  customer.  "  No,  nor  American  ;  it's  German  1  " 
"Impossible,  sir,"  he  declares;  "Swedish,  may  be; 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET  67 

very  likely  it  is  made  in  Sweden,  but  German — why, 
we  are  at  war  with  Germany  !  "  But  it  is  German 
make,  imported  via  Sweden. 

We  know  that  it  is  the  English  Mahomet  which 
must  go  to  the  Russian  mountain.  But,  let  me 
write  it  down,  it  is  very  trying  to  the  English  business 
man  to  accustom  himself  to  Muscovite  procedure. 
Russia  is  the  land  of  officials,  and  they  all  seem  to 
grip  hands  and  form  a  maze  of  barbed  wire  en- 
tanglements to  hinder  trade.  The  caste  system 
is  marked  in  the  realm  of  the  Czar,  and  those  who 
wear  uniform — and  every  little  Russian  born  has  a 
glow  in  his  heart  that  he  may  be  an  official — have 
a  superiority  towards  trade.  Besides,  every  official 
has  a  superior  official  over  him,  right  up  to  the 
monarch  himself,  and  it  is  the  first  rule  of  self-pre- 
servation to  say  "  No  "  to  every  application,  lest 
the  official  should  get  into  trouble  from  someone 
above  him  for  conceding  something  which  should 
have  been  denied. 

If  you  want  to  start  business  in  England  there 
is  nobody  to  prevent  you,  though  your  landlord  will 
desire  a  reference  to  your  bank  that  you  are  able  to 
pay  the  rent.  In  Russia,  the  way  is  long  and  tedious. 
You  have  to  get  permission  to  start  a  company, 
and  there  are  half  a  dozen  departments  to  be  con- 
sulted, every  one  of  which  is  antagonistic  and  has 
to  be  overcome.  Englishmen  with  the  best  of 
authority  to  give  their  views  have  told  me  that 
the  official  attitude  of  Russia  is  to  discourage  com- 
merce instead  of  facilitating  it.  Further,  there 


68  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

is  the  occasional  necessity  of  hurrying  up  matters 
with  a  little  "  palm  oil."  We  are  not  always  above 
reproach  at  home,  but  we  are  a  long  way  from  having 
the  practice  so  common  that  it  may  be  described  as  a 
national  institution  for  everybody  to  make  "a  bit 
on  the  quiet  "  before  he  does  his  duty. 

I  wish  to  guard  against  sweeping  and  unfair 
statements.  There  are  honourable  and  unbribable 
officials  in  Russia :  we  know  that.  But  what  I 
have  just  written  reflects  the  invariable  story  told 
by  Englishmen  resident  in  Russia,  some  of  them 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  more.  They  have 
told  me  of  their  countrymen  coining  to  Petrograd 
desiring  to  start  business  who,  driven  to  desperation 
by  ways  to  which  they  are  not  used  at  home, 
have  "  chucked  up  the  sponge  "  and  returned.  Those 
who  remain  have  learnt  to  shrug  their  shoulders, 
hoist  their  eyebrows,  smile  significantly,  and  fall  in 
with  local  customs.  Writing  as  a  sincere  friend  of 
Russia,  aware  of  the  cordial  feeling  toward  Britain 
which  exists  in  the  country,  fully  admitting  it  is 
the  duty  of  English  manufacturers  to  be  adaptable 
to  the  Russian  market,  I  would  add  that  the  business 
adaptability  should  be  reciprocal,  and  that  the 
powers  that  be  in  Russia  would  do  well  if  they  en- 
deavoured to  purge  their  country  of  a  practice  which 
no  Russian  defends,  though  he  may  be  clever  in 
finding  excuses. 

The  Russians  admire  England  ;  in  their  hearts 
they  would  imitate  English  ways.  It  is  wrong 
to  charge  them  all  with  being  corrupt ;  but  they 


GERMANY   AND    RUSSIAN    MARKET   69 

have  slipped  into  a  custom  which  is  pernicious,  and 
the  administrative  machinery  does  nothing  to  cheek 
it.  Conferences  between  representative  business  men 
of  both  countries — the  banquets  and  back-scratching 
public  orations  can  be  left  out — if  resulting  in  a  joint 
report,  would  have  a  great  influence  in  forcing  and 
strengthening  the  Governments  of  Russia  and  Britain 
into  the  path  of  understanding  the  facts,  to  be 
followed  by  action  for  mutual  good.  No  benefit  will 
come  from  each  country  lecturing  the  other  on  its 
shortcomings.  The  thing  is  to  see  them  and  remove 
them. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EXPERT  ADVICE  TO  ENGLAND 

THE  greatest  authority  on  Russian  trade  ?s  Mr. 
Timiriazeff,  the  ex-Minister  of  Commerce;,  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Council  of  Empire,  has  served 
his  country  abroad,  and  there  can  be  no  Govern- 
ment Commission  affecting  industry  or  commerce 
without  his  knowledge  being  called  to  aid.  He  has 
lived  in  Germany,  knows  England,  and  for  the 
better  part  of  half  a  century  has  seen  the  progress 
of  both  countries  in  the  Russian  market.  He  is 
president  of  the  Russo-British  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
Well  on  in  years,  he  has  the  knowledge  of  a  busy 
lifetime  behind  his  opinions,  and  has  that  grace  of 
manner  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  educated 
and  travelled  Russian.  My  introduction  was  over 
the  telephone,  and  quite  willingly  he  fixed  a  time 
when  I  could  have  a  talk  with  him.  And  a  very 
instructive  talk  it  was,  one  late  afternoon  in  young 
summer,  sitting  in  the  library  of  his  home.  Instead 
of  transcribing  his  views,  it  is  better  that  I  should 
try  to  give  them  in  his  own  words.  I  took  no  notes 
during  the  hour's  conversation,  and,  therefore,  the 
following  must  not  be  accepted  as  a  literal  record  of 
what  he  said.  But  I  wrote  it  down  within  a  couple 
of  hours  after  I  had  seen  him. 
70 


EXPERT   ADVICE   TO   ENGLAND      71 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Timiriazeff,  "  you  are  right  in 
recognising  that  '  adaptability,  language,  credit ' 
are  the  three  essentials  to  any  foreign  country  desiring 
to  trade  with  Russia.  I  have  many  friends  in 
England,  and  I  hope  that  your  country,  with  the 
other  Allies,  will  have  commercial  benefit  as  the 
consequence  of  the  war.  Tariff  advantages  would 
be  an  impossibility ;  it  would  be  continuing  the 
war  against  Germany  in  another  field,  and  would 
lead  to  much  uncomfortableness.  Germany  will 
be  allowed  to  come  into  our  markets  on  an  equality 
with  other  nations,  and  will  undoubtedly  put  forth 
tremendous  efforts  to  regain  her  lost  position — for, 
remember,  when  war  broke  out  over  50  per  cent, 
of  manufactured  imports  into  Russia  came  from 
Germany.  To-day  we  want  to  buy  the  goods  of  our 
Allies,  and  when  peace  comes  there  will  not  be  that 
easy  relationship  between  Russians  and  Germans 
which  existed  before ;  the  antagonism  will  take 
years  to  subside,  and  it  is  natural  that  Russians 
should  be  more  inclined  to  trade  with  their  friends. 

"  I  am  strongly  of  opinion  that  when  a  treaty 
of  peace  comes  to  be  signed  there  should  be  inserted 
a  provision  prohibiting  Germany  from  imposing 
differential  tariffs.  \Vith  Britain  we  have  had  no 
trouble,  and  for  over  sixty  years  your  goods  have 
come  here  under  the  protection  of  the  '  favoured 
nation  '  clause.  On  the  surface,  that  looks  as  though 
Germany  had  no  advantage  which  is  not  given  to 
England.  But  Germany  sent  us  hundreds  of  things 
which  England  did  not.  The  question  of  England 


72  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

competing  does  not  arise.  Take,  for  instance,  aniline 
dyes  and  chemicals,  for  which  you  have  been  as 
dependent  on  Germany  as  we  have.  Germany's 
commercial  policy  has  been  aggressive  and  brutal, 
but  it  has  been  clever.  We  have  exported  cereals 
to  Germany ;  we  sent  her  raw  material.  She  has 
warred  for  particular  articles  of  which  she  had  a 
monopoly,  of  things  in  regard  to  which  she  had  benefit 
because  other  countries  did  not  send  them,  and 
compelled  us  to  lower  our  tariffs  to  her  advantage, 
for  there  was  no  opening  for  the  friendly  nations 
to  claim  the  '  favoured  nation  '  clause.  When  we 
have  refused  she  has  given  a  preference  to  our  com- 
petitors in  cereals  and  raw  material — America,  for 
instance — and  we  have  had  tariff  wars,  ending  in  a 
convention  which  has  not  worked  out  to  the  advantage 
of  Russia. 

"  With  great  skill  and  enterprise  Germany  got 
the  first  place  in  our  market  with  her  goods,  and  she 
always  pressed  for  lower  tariffs  on  those  articles 
where  she  had  little  fear  of  competition  from  England 
or  elsewhere,  or  she  favoured  our  rivals  who  traded 
with  Germany.  What  I  am  very  anxious  about  is 
that  when  peace  comes  to  be  signed  Germany  should 
be  deprived  of  the  power  to  enforce  new  commercial 
conventions,  to  run  for  ten  years  and  to  be  abrogated 
on  a  year's  notice,  causing  much  worry  to  our  trading 
community.  I  feel  very  strongly  about  this.  Pre- 
ference will  be  shown  by  individual  customers  for 
British,  French,  or  German  goods  ;  but  the  Allied 
Powers  should  see  to  it  that  for  a  very  long  time 


EXPERT   ADVICE    TO    ENGLAND      73 

Germany  should  not  be  allowed  to  force  a  conven- 
tion upon  us,  under  threat,  when  the  '  favoured 
nation '  clause  will  in  no  way  benefit  France  or 
England.  We  can  have  no  tariff  directed  specially 
against  Germany,  but  we  want  to  be  saved  from 
an  attack  which  would  tend  to  benefit  Germany  only, 
and  which  would  be  injurious  to  our  own  manufac- 
turing concerns. 

"  Please  tell  your  countrymen  in  Britain  that 
Russia  never  was  more  willing  to  transfer  the  trade 
she  has  had  with  Germany  to  the  friendly  nations. 
Believe  me,  you  are  wrong  if  you  think  one  of  the 
main  difficulties  in  the  past  has  been  that  Germany 
had  produced  cheap  and  nasty  articles  whilst  England 
produced  dear  and  excellent  things.  We  know  the 
fine  things  England  makes,  but  in  thousands  of  cases 
we  buy  German  goods  not  because  they  are  cheap, 
but  because  British  goods  cannot  be  obtained  any- 
where. A  big  percentage  of  Germany's  superior 
imports  over  British  is  not  because  English  goods 
have  been  ousted  from  the  market,  but  because 
Germany  supplies  what  England  has  never  attempted 
to  supply.  Well,  here  is  a  market  favourable  to  you, 
and  if  within  the  next  two  or  three  years  your  people 
do  not  seize  their  opportunities  and  the  market 
returns  to  Germany,  Russia  must  not  be  criticised. 

"  For  Germans  are  very,  very  clever.  Their 
organisation  is  wonderful ;  I  should  think  that  in 
every  bank  throughout  Russia  there  was  a  German 
agent  who  could  supply  information  as  to  whether  a 
prospective  customer  could  be  given  two  years'  credit. 


74  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Many  and  many  a  time  I  have  been  amazed  at  the 
knowledge  which  representatives  of  German  firms 
in  Petrograd  have  had  about  customers  in  distant 
parts  of  the  Empire,  thousands  of  miles  away. 

"  Before  I  was  Minister  of  Commerce  I  was  in 
Berlin.  I  remember  going  to  Mr.  Schimmelpfeng's 
bureau,  a  great  building,  with  galleries  running 
round,  all  stacked  with  reliable  information  about 
the  standing  of  local  firms  and  the  amount  of  credit 
these  firms  were  worthy  of  receiving — information 
all  at  the  disposal  of  German  exporters.  Mr.  Schim- 
melpfeng  boasted  there  was  not  a  single  firm  in  Russia 
that  he  did  not  know  all  about,  and  he  challenged 
me.  I  mentioned  a  firm  near  Moscow,  not  a  big 
place,  but  quite  ordinary,  and  about  which  I  happened 
to  have  some  intimate  knowledge.  Mr.  Schim- 
melpfeng  pressed  a  button,  told  a  secretary  what  was 
wanted,  and  within  five  minutes  there  was  lying 
before  me  a  little  docket  containing  precise  informa- 
tion about  that  firm,  its  capabilities,  its  revenue, 
its  banking  account,  information  which  I  thought 
nobody  outside  the  management  of  the  firm  could 
possibly  know. 

"  Think  of  the  enormous  use  the  Schimmelpfeng 
establishment  was  to  the  German  exporter,  who 
was  asked  to  give  two  years'  credit  to  somebody,  say, 
in  Siberia.  You've  got  nothing  like  that  in  England. 
Are  you  thinking  of  starting  anything  like  it  in  Eng- 
land or  in  Russia  to  help  your  exporters  to  get  hold 
of  the  business  ?  The  Russo-British  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  which  I  started  in  1908,  is  doing  a  valuable 


EXPERT   ADVICE   TO    ENGLAND      75 

work  in  answering  inquiries,  but  you  understand 
that  as  we  have  less  than  a  thousand  members,  of 
which  about  only  a  hundred  are  English,  lack  of 
funds  restricts  its  usefulness. 

"  I  read  that  in  England  there  is  an  expectation 
that  after  the  war  there  will  be  something  of  a 
slump  in  industry.  Well,  the  same  thing  will  be 
certain  in  all  other  manufacturing  countries,  includ- 
ing Germany.  Manufacturers  will  look  round  to 
discover  scope  for  their  energies.  We  have  our  own 
manufactures,  and  we  must  protect  them  by  tariffs  ; 
but  we  all  feel  there  is  going  to  be  a  tremendous 
development  of  our  natural  resources,  and  millions 
upon  millions'  worth  of  goods  will  be  required  that 
our  own  manufactories  cannot  supply. 

"  It  is  plain  we  would  rather  have  the  aid  of  the 
Allies  than  that  of  the  Germans,  against  whom  hearts 
will  be  sore  for  many  years.  And  if  the  British  want 
to  reap  trading  benefit  from  the  friendship  between 
the  Allies  they  have  got  to  move  now.  They 
must  not  wait  till  after  the  war.  The  Germans 
will  then  be  back  again  reviving  and  improving 
their  former  machinery.  British  manufacturers  and 
exporters  should  meet  and  decide  on  what  vigorous 
action  should  be  taken." 

It  is  interesting  that  the  first  Chamber  of  Commerce 
in  Russia,  established  six  or  seven  years  ago,  was 
an  association  of  English  and  Russian  business  men 
concerned  in  Anglo-Russian  trade.  What  really 
brought  it  into  being  was  the  German  competition, 
for  the  German-Russian,  speaking  the  language  of 


76  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

the  country,  adaptive,  ready  to  make  rubbish  if 
rubbish  were  required,  as  well  as  good  articles,  and 
giving  long  credit,  was  getting  ahead  much  too  fast 
to  satisfy  British  merchants. 

Germany  had  no  need  of  a  chamber  of  commerce 
in  Russia  ;  her  agents  and  the  banks  saw  that  what 
was  necessary  in  her  commercial  interests  was  done. 
Russia  has  never  had  any  chambers  of  commerce 
of  her  own.  The  Bourse  committees  of  all  the 
important  trading  centres  are  the  equivalents  to 
our  chambers  of  commerce  at  home,  and  act  as 
intermediaries  between  the  commercial  community 
and  the  authorities. 

The  Russo-British  Chamber  of  Commerce  has 
now  about  900  members,  but,  as  Mr.  Timiriazeff  said, 
only  about  100  of  them  live  in  England. 

The  starting  of  such  a  chamber  immediately 
awoke  other  countries — except  Germany,  which  did 
not  need  aid — with  the  consequence  that  during 
the  last  five  years  there  have  been  established  in 
Petrograd  a  Russo-French  Chamber,  a  Russo-Italian, 
a  Russo-Belgian,  a  Russo-Greek,  and  at  Moscow  a 
Russo-American  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Branches 
of  the  Russo-British  Chamber  were  started  at  Odessa, 
the  great  wheat  export  harbour  on  the  Black  Sea, 
and  at  Warsaw,  the  capital  of  Poland. 

But  I  see  that  the  scope  of  the  Russo-British 
Chamber  of  Commerce  can  be  indefinitely  expanded  ; 
it  is  on  the  spot  and  can  be  helpful  to  English  members. 
Therefore,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  recommending 
it  to  English  manufacturers  interested  in  Russian 


EXPERT   ADVICE    TO    ENGLAND      77 

trade  (address,  4  Gorochovaia,  Petrograd).  It  is 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministry  of  Trade  and 
Industry ;  it  puts  its  English  members  into  touch 
with  suitable  buyers  and  agents ;  it  ascertains, 
under  conditions,  the  standing  of  Russian  firms, 
and  it  assists  in  translations.  In  1914  over  5,000 
inquiries  were  received  and  answered.  The  chief 
committee  is  composed  of  influential  Russian  and 
English  business  men,  and  there  are  sub-committees 
to  deal  with  legal,  mining,  agricultural,  and  other 
matters.  Mr.  Henry  Cooke,  the  Commercial 
Attache  at  the  British  Embassy,  when  talking  to 
me  was  generous  in  his  praise  of  the  service  of  the 
Chamber.  The  lately  appointed  Russian  commercial 
attaches  abroad  sought  its  counsels  before  taking  up 
their  appointments,  whilst  the  commercial  attaches 
of  other  countries  in  Petrograd  frequently  consult 
it  on  matters  not  exclusively  affecting  Anglo-Russian 
trade  interest.  The  Intelligence  Department  of  the 
Russian  Ministry  of  Commerce  constantly  makes 
use  of  its  services  in  questions  relating  to  trade 
between  Russia  and  Britain,  for  which  the  Chamber 
receives  a  small  subsidy  of  £100  a  year.  At  times 
it  is  invited  to  send  delegates  to  attend  various 
Government  commissions.  All  of  which  demonstrates 
it  is  increasingly  appreciated  in  Russia.  It  needs 
to  be  better  known  in  England. 

The  Chamber  discusses  the  problems  of  inter- 
national trade  and  ventilates  trade  grievances. 
Especially  since  the  war  came  it  has  done  excellent 
service  in  regard  to  measures  before  the  Duma  for 


78  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

the  amendment  of  the  bankruptcy  and  company 
laws  and  for  the  prevention  of  the  fictitious  transfer 
of  business  undertakings  and  assets  to  evade  the 
payment  of  liabilities — legislative  measures  in  which 
British  firms  are  closely  interested,  for  they  have 
been  considerable  sufferers  from  the  existing  lax  state 
of  the  law.  Since  the  war  the  work  of  the  Chamber 
has  enormously  increased  as  a  result  of  the  numerous 
inquiries  from  firms  all  over  Russia  desiring,  or  com- 
pelled by  existing  circumstances,  to  replace  German 
goods  by  British. 

By  its  composition  and  membership  the  Chamber 
is  more  concerned  with  assisting  Russians  who  trade 
with  England,  though  there  is  not  the  slightest 
reason  it  should  not  become  of  greater  use  than  it  is 
in  facilitating  communication  between  British  manu- 
facturers and  Russian  traders.  I  visited  the  Chamber, 
and  whatever  shortcomings  there  were  is  due  to  small 
rooms  and  limited  staff,  for  which  the  restricted 
income  of  the  Chamber  is  responsible. 

On  general  principles  I  am  an  opponent  to  sub- 
sidies ;  but  here  is  a  case  where,  until  the  British 
membership  is  augmented,  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
if  some  of  our  better-to-do  chambers  of  commerce 
could  see  their  way  to  make  donations.  I  strongly 
urge  that  a  representative  of  the  Associated  Chambers 
of  Commerce  be  dispatched  to  Petrograd  to  study 
the  situation  and  to  report  at  home.  Better  still, 
a  small  commission  of  five  members,  live  business  men 
whose  opinions  would  carry  weight,  by  proceeding 
to  Petrograd  for  a  month,  could  render  British  com- 


EXPERT  ADVICE   TO   ENGLAND       79 

merce  with  Russia  an  incalculable  service  by  deliver- 
ing addresses  to  home  chambers  on  their  return. 

The  criticism  that  the  Chamber  is  more  Russian 
than  British  can  be  modified  by  British  merchants 
themselves.  Everyone  who  has  trading  relations 
should  be  a  member,  and  thus  increase  the  income 
and  the  range  of  its  usefulness.  Bigger  premises  are 
needed,  and  there  should  be  a  sample-room  which, 
by  charges  for  exhibition,  ought  to  pay  for  itself. 
There  is  a  library,  much  too  crowded,  and  this 
ought  to  be  supplemented  by  a  catalogue-room. 

When  one  knows  of  the  splendid  Schimmelpfeng 
bureau  which  exists  at  Berlin,  with  its  threads  of 
communication  laid  to  every  trade  centre  in  Russia, 
so  that  the  German  exporter  might  obtain  immediate 
information  about  the  needs  of  the  market,  com- 
petitive prices,  the  stability  of  prospective  customers, 
whilst  London  has  been  devoid  of  any  organised 
machinery,  I  sometimes  marvel  that  British  manu- 
facturers have  succeeded  in  doing  as  well  as  they 
have.  Anyway,  steps  ought  to  be  taken  to  set  up 
in  London  a  Chamber  of  Russian  Trade,  which 
would  be  a  co-operating  instrument  with  the  Chamber 
in  Petrograd.  Independent  of  this  proposal,  Mr. 
Henry  Cooke  favours  the  idea  that  the  British 
Government  should  give  financial  help  to  the  Petro- 
grad Chamber,  say,  £500  a  year,  provisionally  granted 
for  a  few  years,  though  I  personally  believe  that 
contributions  from  British  Chambers  of  Commerce 
would  be  more  effective  and  stimulate  members 
to  take  interest  in  what  is  being  done. 


CHAPTER  VII 

AN   IDLER  IN   THE   CAPITAL 

IT  is  Sunday  morning  and  the  bells  of  St.  Isaac's 
Cathedral  have  been  busy  since  dawn. 

The  boom  of  the  heavy  bells,  deep  and  sonorous, 
is  impressive.  The  tone  is  like  that  of  a  man  with 
a  rich  bass  voice,  and  the  mellow  reverberations, 
quivering  through  the  clean  air,  bring  recollections 
to  the  idler — whilst  he  is  sipping  his  early  coffee — 
of  far-off  days  in  sultry  Rangoon,  when  he  joyed  in 
listening  to  the  wooden  hammers  making  the  huge 
bells  of  the  Shway  Dagohn  pagoda  sing — and  Burma 
is  a  long  way  from  Petrograd  ! 

But  the  big  chesty  bells  of  St.  Isaac's  are  always 
succeeded  by  the  jingle-jangle  of  a  tribe  of  whipper- 
snapper  little  bells,  which  clang  and  clatter  in  a 
frisky,  impertinent,  iin-Sabbatarian  and  almost  in- 
decorous manner.  Say  it  quickly :  Wang-jang, 
tingle-lingle,  jang-wang,  bang-bang,  whang-whang, 
tingle-ling,  jang-wang — that  is  somehow  the  style 
they  go.  And  as  reminiscence  is  sprightly  this 
morning,  I  find  myself  giving  cadence  and  words 
to  the  rhyme,  which  is  rather  Eastern.  I  know 
I  have  heard  it  before.  It  was  in  a  cafe  in 
Cairo,  where  slim  Egyptian  girls  with  little  on, 
swayed  and  swung  and  postured  and  jerked  their 
80 


AN    IDLER   IN    THE    CAPITAL         81 

lithe  bodies  in  dances  that  are  supposed  to  be  im- 
proper. 

Yes,  those  whipper-snapper  bells  of  St.  Isaac's — 
calling  the  faithful  to  prayer,  I  suppose — make  a 
coffee-sipping  world-wanderer,  sitting  at  an  hotel 
window  across  the  square,  smile  in  recollection  that 
it  was  just  to  such  a  tune  that  by  the  banks  of  the 
Nile  he  has  seen  amorous  young  girls  throw  them- 
selves about — and  the  Nile  is  a  very  long  way  from 
the  Neva  ! 

It  is  fitting  that  one  goes  to  church.  The  black 
mass  of  domed  St.  Isaac's  is  inviting.  Droshkies, 
with  their  fat  and  swaddled  drivers,  rattle  across 
the  cobbles.  Also  there  is  a  little  procession  of 
maimed  soldiers,  hobbling  on  crutches  and  leaning 
on  sticks,  and  with  their  arms  in  slings.  Their 
cheeks  have  sun  burnt  sallowness  upon  them  and 
their  weak-coffee  coloured  service  jackets  of  cotton 
are  rather  grimy.  They  are  men  scourged  by  the 
War.  With  several  kindly  faced  nurses  by  their 
sides  they  are  moving  to  the  temple  of  peace  to  give 
thanks.  Before  the  big  doors  is  a  double  row  of 
beggars,  of  the  moudjik  class  mostly,  brown  as  the 
steppes  from  which  they  have  come ;  and  they  have 
little  holy  pictures  on  their  breasts  and  little  tin 
boxes  in  their  hands,  and  they  hope  the  worshippers 
in  their  goodness  will  contribute  a  few  kopecks  to 
assist  them  in  their  weary  pilgrimage  to  Kiev  in 
the  south. 

Outside,  the  air  is  laden  with  summer  warmth. 
But  the  cavernous  gloomy  inside  strikes  chill.  The 
G 


82  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

gilded  altar  shimmers  with  little  facets  in  subdued 
illumination  before  the  gleam  of  innumerable  candles. 
There  is  the  song  of  boy  voices,  the  pungent  aroma  of 
incense,  a  throng  of  bearded  ecclesiastics  in  gorgeous 
raiment — a  picture  which  appeals  to  the  imagination. 

The  congregation  is  immense,  half  hi  what  is 
called  European  costume,  half  in  Muscovite  garb, 
but  all  of  the  lower  middle  class.  In  alcoves  are 
pictures  of  saints,  and  before  them  are  giant  cande- 
labra to  which  men  and  women  bring  their  tapers, 
dozens  of  them,  and  they  light  them  and  set  them 
to  burn  before  the  ikon  of  the  saint  whose  inter- 
cession they  need.  They  cross  themselves  many 
times,  kneel  on  the  pavement  and  cross  themselves 
again,  move  forward  and  kiss  the  picture — oh,  so 
reverently  ! — cross  themselves  once  more  and  move 
away. 

And  a  black-frocked  verger  is  close  by  to  remove 
the  tapers  and  make  room  for  the  offerings  of  other 
worshippers  before  the  shrine.  The  soldiers  crawl 
forward,  big,  crippled  men,  and  they  stand  in  humble- 
ness before  the  saints,  bow  their  heads  and  pray. 

In  the  dimmest  of  recesses  a  few  candles  flicker 
before  an  ikon.  Crouching  on  the  ground,  with  fore- 
head on  the  pavement,  is  a  woman  in  black.  She 
crouches  for  a  long  time,  the  humblest  little  bundle 
of  womanly  sorrow  in  the  world.  She  raises  herself 
to  her  knees  and  her  worn  tear-stained  face  gazes 
abjectly  at  the  ikon.  She  rises  and  kisses  it  and 
then  kneels  and  with  arms  across  her  bosom  prays 
with  closed  eyes  and  then,  crouching  once  more, 


BEGGARS 


AN   IDLER   IN   THE   CAPITAL         83 

lies  there  very  still.  Is  she  praying  for  the  soul 
of  a  man  who  had  given  his  life  for  Russia  on  the 
field  of  battle  ? 

There  are  no  pews  or  chairs  in  a  Russian  church. 
The  congregation  is  standing  or  kneeling.  The 
rumble  of  a  priest's  voice  reciting  prayers  is  heard, 
and  occasionally  there  is  the  shrill  ring  of  a  bell. 
On  a  platform  is  a  bishop,  black-bearded,  and 
heavily  mitred  and  with  a  heavy  golden  robe  about 
him.  On  either  side  are  white-bearded  and  richly 
robed  patriarchs  of  the  Church.  Before  the  priest 
on  the  dais  is  a  lad  holding  a  huge  open  Bible,  and 
minor  priests  hold  sturdy  candles  whilst  the  bishop 
reads.  Continuously  the  whole  congregation  bows, 
and  everyone  crosses  himself  three  times. 

The  singing  of  the  priests — is  there  anything  in 
this  world  so  majestic  as  the  intoning  by  Russian 
priests  ?  There  is  no  organ,  just  the  tremendous 
swell  of  powerful  male  voices.  The  chief  singer  is 
a  monarch  of  a  man,  huge,  with  long  flowing  locks 
and  long  beard.  He  throws  back  his  head  and  his 
voice  thunders  louder  and  louder,  as  I  have  never 
heard  a  voice  before,  until  the  mighty  vault  is  full 
of  song  and  the  very  walls  seem  to  shake.  What 
a  voice,  what  a  voice  !  Only  I  wished  that  when  he 
was  not  singing  he  could  have  found  something  else 
to  do  than  pick  his  nose. 

I  stood  aside  and  pondered  on  the  scene.  This 
was  the  great  church  in  Russia's  great  capital,  and 
thousands  were  bending  the  knee  and  whispering  in 
humbleness  before  the  altar  above  which  hung  a 


84  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

painting  of  the  greatest  of  the  Jews.  The  Russian 
does  not  like  the  Jew.  He  hates  him  because  he 
fears  him.  He  ostracises  him  and  pens  him  and 
puts  him  under  disabilities,  and  sometimes  he  rises 
in  anger  and  kills  him.  But  the  soul  of  the  Russian 
is  stirred  as  he  humbles  himself  before  the  chief 
of  the  Jews,  and  mothers  and  wives  with  their  men 
at  the  front  kiss  the  paintings  of  the  mother  of 
Christ  and  weep  that  she  intercede  for  those  whom 
they  love. 

It  is  really  a  very  jolly  Sunday  luncheon  party 
of  which  I  am  a  member.  The  war  news  which  has 
arrived  is  bad,  but  we  try  to  forget  it.  The  band 
plays  and  the  restaurant  is  full  of  laughter.  Many 
young  officers  are  here,  all  merry  but  all  limping. 
There  is  the  salutation  of  superiors.  All  military 
men  are  wearing  their  orders,  and  there  is  no  officer 
without  at  least  one  order.  The  Cossacks  look 
splendid.  One  is  wearing  the  Order  of  St.  George — 
for  bravery  before  the  enemy.  A  well-known  general 
arrives,  and  with  him  is  a  dainty  frou-frou'd  French 
actress  with  a  reputation — it  is  only  in  Russia  that 
such  things  are  done  so  openly. 

Ours  is  a  purely  British  table.  Of  course  we 
talk  about  the  War.  Then  we  talk  about  the  soup, 
for  Russia  is  the  land  of  the  perfect  soup.  No 
country  makes  such  delicious  soups  as  Russia.  When 
you  hear  a  lady  exclaim  :  "I  kiss  my  hand  to  the 
Russian  soups,"  you  will  have  to  go  to  Russia  to 
understand  what  she  means. 

One  of  the  party  indulges  in  a  little  whistle  and 


AN    IDLER   IN   THE   CAPITAL         85 

somebody  says  "  Hush  !  " — for  Russians  never  whistle. 
There  is  a  superstition  that  it  brings  bad  luck.  If 
you  are  light-hearted  enough  to  whistle  in  the  street 
and  a  gendarme  hears  you,  he  will  command  you  to 
cease.  "  I  was  coming  out  of  the  club,"  said  a 
man,  "and  I  was  whistling,  and  a  priest  who  was 
passing  made  the  sign  of  the  Cross  before  me." 

Some  friends  had  come  up  from  Moscow  and 
we  discussed  Russian  travelling.  It  is  cheap,  some- 
times clean  and  often  comfortable.  First-class 
carriages  on  the  railways  are  painted  blue,  second- 
class  chocolate,  third-class  yellow,  and  fourth-class 
green.  On  all  the  night  trains  in  Russia  there  is 
sleeping  accommodation  for  all  classes — from  the 
reserved  coupt  for  the  first-class  passengers  to  the 
bare  wooden  shelves  for  the  fourth-class — and  we 
agree  that  other  countries  have  much  to  learn  from 
Russia. 

But  we  all  execrate  the  droshki  driver.  So  far, 
there  is  only  one  class  of  the  Russian  community 
whose  necks  I  daily  desired  to  assist  in  breaking. 
These  are  the  droshki  drivers  with  their  carriages  like 
bath-chairs  made  for  two.  The  gentleman  has  a  hat 
like  an  old-fashioned  beaver,  cut  down  in  the  crown 
and  with  a  scoop  of  the  wings  like  a  sauce-boat. 
He  wears  a  combination  coat  and  skirt,  heavily 
quilted  and  padded  with  cotton  wool  until  he  is 
blown  out  like  the  buffoon  in  a  music-hall  acrobatic 
troupe.  He  lives  in  this  cloak,  summer  and  winter, 
he  sleeps  in  it,  and  I  hope  to  goodness  that  he  dies  in 
it  and  that  it  is  buried  with  him. 


86  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Compared  with  the  Petrograd  ichvorshik  the 
London  taxi-driver  has  the  virtues  of  a  rural  dean. 
On  the  "  back  of  the  front  "  of  his  vehicle  are  the 
regulation  prices — but  though  it  is  war-time  the 
illustrated  papers  ought  to  find  room  for  the  portrait 
of  a  droshki  driver  who  ever  came  within  range  of 
his  proper  fare.  Nobody  ever  thinks  of  jumping  into 
a  droshki  and  paying  about  right  at  the  end  of  the 
journey.  Four  times  as  much  as  is  legitimate  would 
be  demanded,  and  if  it  is  not  forthcoming  you  are 
followed  into  your  residence  or  hotel  and  you  learn 
the  tremendous  scope  of  the  Russian  language  in 
hot  invective. 

You  have  to  bargain.  When  I  went  out  and 
approached  the  droshki  rank  I  had  a  sort  of  Dutch 
auction.  I  shouted  that  I  wanted  to  go  to  the 
British  Embassy.  A  hirsute  ruffian  suggests  two 
roubles.  Neit !  Another  blackmailer  smirks  that 
he'll  take  me  for  one  rouble  fifty  kopecks.  Neit ! 
Then  one  rouble  is  grunted  by  somebody  up  the  line. 
Neit !  "  Skolko  ?  "  (How  much  are  you  willing  to 
give  ?)  is  asked  by  a  fellow  with  a  pock-marked  face 
and  a  swollen  stomach.  I  offer  sixty  kopecks. 
He  is  willing  to  take  me  for  seventy,  and  the  bargain 
is  concluded. 

There  are  no  regulation  luncheon  or  dining  hours 
in  Russia,  and  therefore  the  dining-rooms  of  the 
best  hotels  never  have  that  smart  appearance  which 
you  find  in  a  first-rate  London  hotel  in  the  evening. 
If  there  is  a  dinner-party  everybody  will  be  in  evening 
dress ;  but  more  likely  than  not  people  at  the  adjoining 


Photograph  by  J.  Dai.'aro,  Petrograd 


A   TROIKA 


AN    IDLER    IN   THE    CAPITAL         87 

tables  are  in  the  same  dress  that  they  wear  at  luncheon. 
If  you  see  a  couple  of  young  fellows  enter  a  restaurant 
in  dinner  jackets,  the  chances  are  nineteen  to  one 
they  are  Englishmen. 

Everybody  shakes  hands  with  everybody  else.  If 
you  are  sitting  in  a  club  you  mustn't  be  surprised  if  a 
perfect  stranger  comes  forward  and  shakes  hands  with 
you.  You  see  the  head  waiter  in  a  restaurant  wander 
round  shaking  hands  with  visitors,  which  is  not  the 
English  way,  but  it  appears  rather  democratic.  A 
place  I  dined  at  several  times  is  the  Restaurant  of 
Amalgamated  Waiters,  which  explains  itself.  It  is 
run  on  the  co-partnership  plan  amongst  a  group  of 
waiters,  better  class  waiters,  who  look  after  you  well, 
for  the  food  is  good  and  it  is  cheaper  than  at  some 
of  the  more  swagger  places,  where  the  prices  are 
invariably  higher  than  those  of  New  York. 

A  Russian  restaurant  is  quite  a  delightful  place. 
In  a  tank  at  the  entrance  swim  the  fish  which  you 
wish  to  have  served  up  in  half  an  hour  and  you 
make  your  selection  and  the  finny  is  netted.  You 
smoke  cigarettes  (paperos)  before  dining  and  after 
the  meal,  and  if  it  happens  to  be  a  birthday  party,  or 
any  occasion  which  provides  the  excuse,  there  is 
interminable  speech-making  and  health- drinking 
between  the  courses.  When  the  coffee  is  served, 
it  is  quite  the  proper  thing  to  kiss  the  hand  of  your 
hostess  in  acknowledgment  of  her  hospitality.  Indeed, 
kissing  plays  a  prominent  part  in  social  relations. 
Men  kiss  each  other  if  they  are  related  or  friends  who 
are  overjoyed  at  meeting  each  other.  Women  always 


RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

seem  on  the  look  out  for  a  chance  to  kiss  each  other. 
Men  kiss  the  hands  of  married  women,  but  in  correct 
circles  they  do  not  kiss  the  hands  of  unmarried 
ladies. 

In  private  life  many  of  the  best  of  Russian  families 
live  an  ascetic  life.  The  meats  are  scraggy,  the  table- 
cloth not  always  the  cleanest,  and  any  old  dishes 
will  do.  But  let  there  be  a  party — my !  Then 
everything  that  is  sumptuous  and  expensive  is  to 
the  front.  For  the  Russian  is  ostentatious  and 
hospitable,  and  it  would  hurt  him  to  the  bone  if  he 
failed  in  creating  a  good  impression.  I  have  had 
it  whispered  in  my  ear  that  when  Russian  ladies  are 
"  not  at  home  "  there  is  a  slackness,  an  easy  non- 
chalance about  the  way  they  dress  which  the  average 
English  lady,  unless  she  were  a  dowd,  would  never 
fall  into. 

But  meet  a  Russian  lady  when  she  is  "at  home  " 
and  there  is  no  more  delightfully  dressed  or  better 
conversational  dame  in  the  world.  Russian  ladies 
have  got  no  complexions  ;  so  they  do  not  powder. 
Truth  and  not  gallantry  compels  me  to  say  they  are 
all  colourless,  except  a  kind  of  clayey  drab.  This 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  one  remembers  the 
Russian  abhorrence  of  fresh  air.  It  is  seldom  you 
ever  see  a  window  open.  No  attention  is  ever  paid 
to  ventilation.  The  air  is  dead  and  to  an  English- 
man often  repulsive.  Sometimes  I  have  travelled 
hours  standing  in  the  corridor  of  a  railway  train, 
for  the  carriages  were  offensive  through  non-ventila- 
tion, and  I  could  not  ask  for  the  window  to  be  opened 


AN   IDLER    IN   THE    CAPITAL         89 

without  being  thought  either  mad  or  rude.  Once, 
during  winter  time,  in  a  foul,  stinking  dining-room, 
I  tore  open  a  double  window — it  had  been  puttied 
up  to  prevent  a  thread  of  air  entering — and  there  was 
almost  a  riot.  I  do  not  want  to  boast,  and  therefore 
I  admit  I  was  worsted ;  the  window  was  closed  and 
I  had  to  console  myself  with  making  myself  doubly 
unpopular  with  my  remarks  on  "  the  seven-and- 
twenty  smells,  all  well-defined  genuine  stinks." 

Of  course  one  has  to  remember  that  Russia  belongs 
to  the  Russians,  and  if  they  prefer  foul  air  it  is  really 
the  business  of  the  visiting  foreign  minority  to  fall 
in  with  the  customs.  But  we  must  be  allowed  to 
smile.  The  better-class  Russian  manipulates  his 
knife  and  fork  in  the  accepted  manner  of  Western 
nations.  But  get  down  to  the  middle-class  and 
then  you  find  idiosyncrasies  that  are  marvellous. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  agility  with  which  half  a  knife 
blade  can  disappear  into  a  moving  mouth — one  has 
witnessed  that  performance  in  other  lands — but  the 
way  the  fork  is  gripped  with  tight  fist,  driven  into  the 
food  as  though  it  were  a  piece  of  writhing  German 
trying  to  escape ;  and  there  is  a  juggle  between  knife 
and  fork,  ending  in  the  fork  being  clasped  between 
the  first  and  second  fingers,  prongs  down,  and  then 
fork  and  knife  engaged  in  swift  struggle.  The  Russian 
gets  his  face  near  to  his  food  and  sprawls  his  elbows 
whilst  feeding  himself ;  and  if  he  offers  you  a  remark 
knife  and  fork  are  pointed  upwards  whilst  he  addresses 
you.  The  Russian  has  many  excellent  qualities,  but 
his  table  manners  are  different  from  those  we  are 


90  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

accustomed  to  at  home.  I  suppose  Russians  visiting 
England  have  some  crisp  comments  to  make  on  the 
extraordinary  habits  of  English  folk. 

Some  of  us  have  arranged  for  an  afternoon  of 
boating  on  an  arm  of  the  Neva.  We  are  off  to  the 
suburb  of  Christovskai.  On  the  broad  Neva  are 
dancing  many  pleasure  steamers.  The  day  is  fine 
and  all  Petrograd  and  his  wife  are  bent  to  have  a 
jaunt  on  the  water.  Crowds  are  on  the  floating 
piers  ready  to  jump  on  the  fat  and  churning  boats 
prepared  to  take  them  to  their  favourite  haunt.  We 
jump  on  our  boat  which  bobs  her  way  past  the 
glittering  spires  of  Peter  and  Paul.  Away  on  one 
side  is  the  soft  blue  dome  of  a  mosque  which  the 
Moslems  in  Petrograd  have  erected.  Private  launches 
cut  by  with  impertinence  in  their  manner.  Sounds  of 
a  band  come  from  the  Narodny  Dom,  a  kind  of 
People's  Palace,  very  popular  with  the  crowd  and 
where  an  endless  round  of  entertainment  and  in- 
struction can  be  got  for  ten  kopecks  (twopence-half- 
penny). 

There  are  mighty  barges  which  have  sluggishly 
floated  down  stream  for  hundreds  of  miles  bringing 
timber  from  the  forests  to  provide  fuel  for  the  capital 
during  the  winter  months. 

Our  steamer  swings  out  of  the  main  channel  along 
a  reach  by  the  side  of  which  are  pleasant  riverside 
houses.  Groups  of  friends  are  gathered  on  the 
verandas  and  under  the  trees,  and  the  yell  of  the 
gramophone  sounds  loud.  We  land  and  walk  through 
pleasant  ways,  where  there  are  neat  country  cottages 


AN   IDLER   IN   THE   CAPITAL         91 

and  fields  in  which  sturdy  young  Russians  are  playing 
football  and  reach  the  chilet  of  a  friend  where  there 
is  tea. 

So  to  the  Arrow  Club,  English  in  its  origin,  most  of 
the  members  English,  with  a  boat-house  as  excellent 
as  most  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames  and  with  all  the 
boats  Putney -built  and  bearing  English  names — 
"  Bluebottle,"  Dragonfly,"  and  the  like. 

We  are  in  Russia,  but  this  seems  like  a  bit  of  the 
old  country.  There  are  young  fellows  who  have 
been  having  spins  in  their  outriggers  and  are  now 
eager  for  their  shower  bath.  We  soon  get  a  boat 
and  are  away  through  a  pretty  piece  of  wooded  country 
with  delicious  backwaters  which  are  private,  and  we 
catch  glimpses  of  delightful  houses.  There  are 
hundreds  of  boats  out,  of  all  sorts  and  with  all  sorts 
of  oarsmen  and  oarswomen.  There  are  folk  dressed 
for  the  river  and  there  are  those  togged  out  as  though 
they  had  originally  intended  going  to  a  garden  party, 
and  there  are  soldiers  with  their  girls,  and  crews  of 
young  fellows  rowing  badly,  but  very  happy  and 
singing  splendidly. 

The  way  opens  and  we  are  amongst  the  islands. 
Thousands  of  folks  are  lolling  by  the  banks.  There 
are  other  thousands  bathing,  yes,  thousands,  whole 
families  and  concourses  of  young  men  and  bunches 
of  young  women  all  splashing  in  the  water  and  as 
joyous  as  nymphs,  and  everyone  in  what  artists 
call  "the  altogether."  At  no  seaside  resort  in 
England,  not  even  Blackpool,  are  there  so  many 
bathers  to  be  seen  as  there  are  this  late  Sunday  after- 


92  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

noon  disporting  by  the  edge  of  the  islands  which 
breast  upon  the  Gulf  of  Finland. 

There  is  a  great  calm.  We  make  right  out  to  the 
broad  waters  of  the  sea.  Sailing  boats  rest  lazily, 
for  there  is  not  a  puff  of  wind.  To  look  back  at 
Petrograd  recalls  pleasant  times  on  the  lagoon  with 
Venice  in  the  distance.  There  are  many  points  of 
difference,  but  two  men  in  the  boat  remarked  how 
similar  the  scene  was  to  Venice  on  a  luscious  summer 
evening.  We  go  as  far  as  the  lightship  where  there 
is  peace  and  the  mist  of  evening  is  gathering  far 
away.  We  smoke  and  talk  about  many  things 
and  forget  there  is  a  war  somewhere  on  the  earth. 

The  journey  back  is  long.  Over  the  waters 
come  song  and  the  world  is  beautiful.  The  falling 
sun  catches  the  gilt  cupolas  of  the  Petrograd  churches. 
And  when  we  have  hauled  the  boat  back  into  the 
boathouse  of  the  Arrow  Club  there  is  dinner 
waiting  us  at  the  house  of  our  English  friends. 

Back  to  Petrograd  by  tramcar,  and  what  a  crush  ! 
There  was  not  even  standing-room,  not  even  hanging- 
on  room.  We  got  wedged  on  the  driver's  platform 
among  a  group  of  soldiers — as  happy  a  holiday  throng 
as  anywhere.  Along  avenues  we  scudded,  clanged 
up  broad  roads,  dashed  over  the  Neva  bridge  and 
were  deposited  at  the  corner  of  the  Nevski,  and  the 
great  street  was  crowded  with  pedestrians  enjoying 
the  cool  of  the  summer  evening. 

One  more  experience :  we  must  go  to  a  kinema 
show.  The  "  pictures "  are  just  as  popular  in 
Petrograd  as  in  London  or  New  York  or  Sydney 


AN    IDLER   IN   THE   CAPITAL         93 

or  Paris.  We  have  difficulty  in  getting  seats  and 
we  pay  twice  as  much  as  we  would  in  London.  Of 
course  there  are  the  usual  American  films;  the 
Transatlantic  dramas  are  pronounced  "  Anglichani  " 
by  the  Russians  who  fail  to  know  the  difference. 

But  the  Russian  likes  strong  meat.  Merely 
amusing  pictures  leave  him  cold.  There  was  a  film 
of  the  career  of  "  A  Daughter  of  Joy  "  which  would 
not  have  been  passed  by  the  Censor  in  England. 
There  was  a  sad  love  drama.  The  Russians  will 
not  have  a  happy  ending.  They  adore  a  mournful 
ending  where  the  young  lady  has  to  marry  the 
man  she  hates  and  the  real  lover  cuts  his  throat 
with  a  razor  at  the  marriage  feast  and  writhes  on 
the  floor  before  he  expires  with  the  bride  on  her 
knees  sobbing  upon  his  breast.  The  Russian  glories 
in  murder  in  the  "  pictures."  He  and  she  turns  up 
his  or  her  nose  at  the  sentimental  journeys-end-in- 
lovers-meeting  sort  of  film  which  is  popular  in  other 
countries.  The  manager  of  a  film  firm  told  me  it 
was  usual  to  have  two  endings,  one  gruesome  for 
Russia  and  one  happy  for  elsewhere. 

Petrograd  goes  to  bed  late.  It  is  near  twelve 
o'clock  and  the  main  streets  are  still  full  of  folk, 
but  thinning.  The  packed  electric  cars  race  along 
like  streaks  of  light.  Automobiles  grunt  their 
hoarse  challenge  for  everybody  to  get  out  of  the 
way.  Droshkies  clatter  along.  Midnight  booms  and 
St.  Isaac's  Cathedral  is  wrapt  in  gloom.  And  far 
away  the  Great  War  is  being  waged. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   EUSSIAN   MAN   OF   BUSINESS 

SURELY  there  never  was  so  agreeable  a  business 
man  as  the  Russian.  He  would  never  think  of 
hustling  you.  He  brings  an  exquisite  philosophy 
into  daily  life,  and  if  things  are  not  done  now,  is  there 
not  the  full  stretch  of  eternity  during  which  they 
can  advance  to  accomplishment  ? 

He  accepts  the  old  saw  that  time  was  made  for 
slaves.  Time  should  be  pleasant,  and  what  has  a 
man  gained  if  he  worries  himself  to  an  early  demise  ? 
The  Russian  looks  with  more  wonder  than  admira- 
tion on  the  impetuous  foreigner  who  always  wants 
to  finish  something  in  order  to  start  something  else. 
You  can  always  tell  the  Englishman  in  Petrograd ;  he 
lacks  the  sedateness  which  characterises  the  Russian. 

You  know  the  procedure  of  an  ordinary  com- 
mercial establishment  in  England  or  America — how 
the  managers  and  superiors  and  clerks  move  about 
with  an  alacrity  which  would  suggest  that  an  in- 
visible but  trenchant  knout  was  playing  about  their 
shoulders — well,  sometimes  they  do ! 

Drop  into  the  office  of  a  great  business  concern  in 

Russia,  and  the  main  thing  which  will  impress  you 

is  its  repose.     There  is  no  liveliness  as  though  there 

were  a  mail  to  be  caught.     Perhaps  you  will  see  a 

94 


THE  RUSSIAN  MAN  OF  BUSINESS     95 

greybeard  slowly  writing.  Other  employees  will 
be  leaning  back  in  their  chairs  gossiping,  whilst  one 
may  be  performing  manicure  operations,  and  another, 
peering  into  a  miniature  reflecting  glass,  will  be 
trimming  his  moustache  with  a  tiny  pair  of  scissors. 
Nearly  everybody  is  puffing  at  the  dainty  paperos 
composed  of  cardboard  tubing,  with  a  wad  of  wool 
to  check  the  nicotine,  and  an  infinitesimal  quantity 
of  tobacco.  It  would  be  unjust  to  criticise  the 
Russian  clerk  having  a  cigarette  during  business 
hours,  for  he  can  plead  it  is  "  such  a  small  one,  sir," 
like  the  servant  girl  when  reproved  by  a  clergyman  on 
a  certain  occasion.  You  can  puff  fifty  of  these  cigar- 
ettes in  a  day  and  still  be  thought  a  moderate  smoker. 

The  attendant  is  constantly  entering  with  glasses 
of  amber-hued  tea  on  trays.  It  is  delicious  and 
refreshing,  especially  if  it  has  a  slice  of  lemon  in 
lieu  of  milk.  It  keeps  the  head  clear.  During  your 
stay  in  Russia  you  have  come  to  like  it  yourself. 
So  people  sip  tea  and  puff  cigarettes  and  discuss  the 
War  and  the  lady  with  the  diamonds  who  sings  at  the 
Aquarium,  and  now  and  then  a  little  business  is  done. 

From  one  corner  comes  a  clitter-clatter.  It 
is  the  cashier  making  up  his  accounts  on  a  tchotte. 
As  a  very  small  boy,  I  remember  we  had  a  thing 
like  this  in  the  nursery,  coloured  beads  on  pieces  of 
wire  within  a  frame,  so  we  youngsters  might  learn 
to  count.  Exactly  the  same  thing  is  used  in  all 
Russian  business  houses.  I  saw  it  in  use  in  my  hotel, 
and  I  saw  it  in  use  in  the  English  bank  where  I 
presented  my  letter  of  credit.  The  Russian  cannot 


96  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

count  without  the  tchotte.  A  Russian  jerks  the 
beads  to  find  out  what  is  the  total  of  2,  2,  and  1  ! 
It  is  a  nice  instrument  and  useful,  for  the  Russian 
can  tot  up  an  enormous  string  of  figures  with  a 
rapidity  and  accuracy  that  cannot  be  surpassed 
by  the  most  expert  of  London  banking  clerks. 

Two  Russians  are  to  do  business  :  shall  we  say 
one  desires  to  fix  up  a  contract  for  furnishing  a 
building  with  electric  lighting  appliances  and  the 
other  has  the  decision  ?  There  is  no  brutal  jumping 
to  the  point  with  swift  haggling  over  terms  and  then 
agreeing  on  the  price,  a  pushful  method  which  more 
Western  nations  consider  to  be  smart.  Compared 
with  the  Russian  there  is  a  lack  of  courteous  decorum 
about  the  British  way. 

Ah,  they  are  so  pleased  to  see  each  other.  "  And 
how  is  madame  and  the  children  ?  Have  a  paperos 
— and  it  must  be  nice  to  get  into  the  country  each 
evening  during  the  summer  months,  and  we've 
taken  so  many  more  thousands  of  German  prisoners. 
The  electric  lighting  appliances  :  yes,  of  course.  But 
come  along  to  the  Hotel  France,  and  let  us  lunch 
together." 

They  go  off  and  eat  and  talk  long  over  their 
coffee.  To-morrow  they  will  meet  and  decide.  On 
the  morrow  they  meet  again  and  are  so  pleasant. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  do  anything  just  now ;  there 
was  a  man  to  be  seen  and  consulted,  and  he  has  gone 
to  Moscow  ;  but  he'll  be  back  in  a  few  days.  Au 
revoir  ;  details  can  be  discussed  in  three  or  four 
days.  In  a  few  days  there  is  another  visit ;  the 


THE  RUSSIAN  MAN   OF  BUSINESS     97 

other  has  gone  out  with  some  friends  ;  it  is  not 
expected  he  will  return  to-day.  But  he  is  found  in 
a  cafe  sipping  tea  and  reading  the  Novoe  Vremya. 
A  polite  rebuke.  Ah  !  He  never  telephoned  saying 
he  had  not  seen  the  man  who  must  be  consulted, 
because  he  had  no  idea  the  other  would  be  keeping 
the  appointment.  So  it  goes  on,  with  indecision  and 
patience  playing  a  long  drawn-out  game  with  each 
other.  Nobody  complains  ;  it  is  the  easy  custom  of 
the  country.  And  they  are  so  nice  about  it  all. 

The  foreigner  who  runs  into  Petrograd  thinking 
he  can  fix  up  a  contract  in  a  day — everything  has 
been  arranged  by  correspondence  and  there  only 
remains  the  signing  of  the  papers — bangs  into  the 
most  velvety  snag  in  the  world.  He  is  not  stopped, 
but  he  does  not  seem  to  be  getting  on.  There  is 
so  much  hospitality  that  there  is  little  time  for 
talking  business.  Besides,  he  did  not  know  the 
documents  had  to  go  before  certain  high  officials, 
and  they  are  so  busy  ;  delay  is  regrettable,  but  it 
is  a  pleasant  day.  If  he  is  inclined  to  be  irritable 
he  is  disarmed  by  the  charming  manners  of  the 
Russians.  He  may  grunt  things  to  himself  when 
dressing  in  his  room,  but  what  can  be  said  to  people 
who  are  so  considerate,  so  willing  to  help,  whose  main 
desire  it  is  to  facilitate  matters? — only  the  facilita- 
tion takes  a  precious  long  time  in  coming  to  a  head. 
What  a  couple  of  Englishmen  or  Americans  will 
decide  in  twenty  minutes'  talk,  Russians  will  walk 
round  for  the  better  part  of  a  fortnight.  Men  go 
to  Russia  bursting  with  giant  propositions.  Nobody 


98  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

stops  them  ;  everybody  agrees  they  would  be  splendid 
for  Russia.  But  one  morning  the  hustler  gets  into 
the  train  with  his  face  set  homewards,  having  accom- 
plished nothing  at  all.  He  has  failed  to  learn  the 
axiom  concerning  one's  conduct  in  Rome. 

Russia  is  the  land  of  plenty  of  time.  And  the 
Russian  has  the  common  weakness  of  frail  humanity 
in  that  he  likes  money,  but  he  likes  a  good  time 
better.  Every  country  pats  itself  on  the  back  and 
commends  its  own  warm-heartedness ;  so  that 
wherever  the  vagrant  writing  man  goes  he  hears 
(according  to  where  he  is)  about  true  Irish  hospitality 
and  characteristic  Canadian  hospitality  and  real 
Yorkshire  hospitality,  Australian  hospitality  and  New 
Zealand  hospitality,  whereas  good  fellows  are  much 
like  other  good  fellows  all  over  the  world — but  the 
Russian  gets  ahead  of  all  in  "  doing  the  visitor  proud." 

Unlike  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  newer  lands, 
he  never  pumps  into  you  what  a  splendid  country 
Russia  is.  In  these  days  of  war  when  enthusiasm 
is  pardonable,  the  modesty  of  the  Russians  is  an 
example.  They  are  depressed  when  things  are  not 
satisfactory,  but  when  things  go  well  they  take  it 
all  as  a  matter  of  course.  And  the  Russian  brings 
this  trait  into  his  business.  If  in  a  burst  of  British 
candour  you  express  your  opinion  on  the  leisurely 
way  business  is  done  in  Russia  and  denounce  it  as 
"  blank  slow,"  the  Russian  admits  you  are  quite 
right,  and  is  sorry  there  is  not  more  alacrity  ;  he 
is  depressed.  He  has  not  learned  the  art  of  adver- 
tisement or  the  booming  of  antique  dictionaries 


THE  RUSSIAN  MAN  OF  BUSINESS     99 

so  that   even   the  wideawake  are  mesmerised   into 
purchase. 

As  for  paying  in  cash,  except  for  smaller  things, 
that  is  quite  an  un-Russian  idea.  He  gives  a  bill,  and 
he  has  it  renewed,  and  he  borrows  money  on  a  new 
bill  to  pay  the  old  bill  until  you  feel  that  half  the 
business  population  of  Russia  is  living  in  a  cyclone 
of  bills.  The  banks  do  a  great  trade — indeed,  it 
may  be  said  to  be  the  main  trade — discounting  bills. 
Of  course,  the  creditor  would  like  cash,  but  as  that 
is  an  unheard-of  thing,  he  takes  a  bill — he  prefers 
a  bill  at  three  or  six  months  to  the  expectation  of 
being  paid  in  a  month  when  he  sends  in  his  account. 
The  recovery  of  a  debt  in  a  court  of  law — well,  it 
takes  as  long  as  things  usually  take  in  Russia.  But 
if  a  bill  is  not  met  or  renewed  at  the  specified  time 
the  arm  of  judgment  comes  down  swiftly. 

The  Russian  can  accomplish  things  with  haste, 
but  that  is  when  he  has  been  contaminated  by 
American  or  English  experience.  The  average  Musco- 
vite is  dignified  in  transacting  business,  not  because 
he  cannot  be  quick,  but  simply  because  it  is  not  the 
fashion  of  the  country.  He,  like  the  rest  of  us,  is  the 
result  of  his  environment.  Business  starts  later 
than  in  England,  and  generally  ends  earlier  ;  and 
there  are  several  entr'actes  during  the  day. 

Organisation  is  a  device  which  the  Russian 
regards  as  a  foreign  invention.  He  admires  it 
enormously  ;  in  some  establishments  you  actually 
see  evidence  of  it.  The  card  index  system  is  most 
ingenious,  and  in  some  places  it  is  used  for  quite 


ioo  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

six  weeks  at  a  stretch.  One  day  a  Russian  (with 
foreign  training)  was  telling  me  of  his  efforts  to 
induce  the  management  of  the  Petrograd  municipal 
tramways  to  have  a  better  organised  service.  There 
was  no  official  retort  that  it  was  a  good  service.  It 
was  admitted  it  ought  to  be  better,  that  in  the  middle 
of  the  day  there  should  be  more  cars  running  through 
the  centre  of  the  city  and  not  so  many  empty  cars  pene- 
trating the  environs.  Yes,  there  ought  to  be  organisa- 
tion— and  the  cars  jangled  round  in  much  the  old  way. 
It  is  astounding  the  manner  the  English  business 
man  can  speed  along.  The  Russian  likes  it,  and 
agrees  that  Russian  business  men — other  business 
men — should  try  to  imitate  and  move  more  quickly. 
But  England  is  England  and  Russia  is  Russia. 
Rising  early  in  the  morning,  down  to  the  works 
by  eight  o'clock,  and  most  of  the  correspondence 
dictated  before  ten,  interviews  with  managers, 
negotiating  with  representatives  of  other  firms, 
attending  a  company  meeting,  having  a  snack  of  a 
luncheon,  a  conference  in  the  afternoon,  and  then 
dine  with  a  man  so  that  business  may  be  debated  over 
a  cigar — the  whirlwind  gives  the  Russian  a  headache. 
He  is  not  an  early-to-bed-early-to-rise  man.  He 
likes  to  go  to  the  gardens  and  see  an  outdoor  opera 
and  listen  to  the  band,  and  at  midnight  have  supper 
at  a  cafi  chantant  and  be  hospitable  and  admire  the 
indifferent  French  singers.  The  Russian  is  easily 
pleased.  He  is  enraptured  about  artists  at  the  Aquar- 
ium or  the  Bouffe  who  would  not  have  much  of  a  chance 
at  a  third-rate  variety  show  in  the  suburbs  of  London. 


THE  RUSSIAN  MAN  OF  BUSINESS   101 

You  rarely  hear  of  a  Russian  business  man 
needing  a  rest  cure  because  his  nerves  have  gone  to 
pieces  through  excessive  strain.  In  his  way,  how- 
ever, he  gets  quite  as  much  fun  out  of  life  as  the 
commercialist  of  other  lands.  If  you  could  probe 
into  his  soul,  you  would  find  a  poet  and  a  dreamer,  and 
poetry  and  dreaming  are  hostages  to  fortune  in  the 
modern  world  of  money-making.  Some  Russians 
are  very  rich — you  find  them  chiefly  at  Moscow, 
manufacturing  things  for  the  peasantry,  and  nine- 
tenths  of  Russia's  population  are  peasants — but  it 
cannot  be  alleged  that  the  Russian  business  man 
is  hungering  to  make  a  fortune.  By  his  method  of 
trade — a  curve,  and  not  a  direct  attack — his  money 
comes  easily,  and  he  lets  it  depart  just  as  easily 

He  is  an  agreeable  man  to  do  business  with  if 
you  remember  you  are  in  Russia.  His  outlook  on 
life  is  idealistic,  and  it  is  rare  that  you  run  into  the 
hard-knuckled  materialist.  He  is  the  antithesis  to 
the  American  business  man.  The  American  is  out 
to  make  money,  and  at  the  back  of  his  head  are 
ideals.  The  Russian  keeps  his  ideals  fresh,  and  it  is 
his  spare  time  that  he  gives  to  making  money. 

It  is  this  which  makes  it  so  difficult  for  the  com- 
mercial man  of  the  West  to  get  along  with  the  Musco- 
vite. He  likes  the  Russian  qualities,  but  complains 
of  his  slowness,  whereas  he  is  just  different.  Maybe 
the  idea  of  slowness  is  encouraged  by  the  fact  that 
the  Russian  calendar  is  thirteen  days  behind  our 
own.  When  it  is  July  1st  in  England,  it  is  only 
June  18th  in  Russia. 


CHAPTER     IX 

THE   RUSSIANS 

THE  Russians  are  an  emotional,  unsettled  people. 
As  their  ancestors  were  nomads,  so  the  modern 
Russians  are  prone  to  wandering  either  physically 
or  mentally — and  there  is  no  race  less  conservative 
in  the  recognition  of  fresh  trends  of  thought.  In 
many  ways  they  are  as  advanced  as  the  most  go- 
ahead  Western,  and  in  other  ways  there  is  a  strange, 
almost  eerie  Orientalism  in  their  character. 

It  is  a  romantic  idea  that  the  Russian  is  pure 
Slav.  When  Russia  first  came  into  history  it  was 
about  one-fifth  the  size  it  is  to-day.  It  was  sur- 
rounded by  Finnish  and  Turanian  races.  As  Russia 
expanded  these  races  did  not  disappear ;  they  were 
absorbed,  and  to-day  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire 
you  see  varying  types,  sometimes  fair  and  Northern, 
sometimes  tawny  and  Eastern,  which  tell  of  the 
mixture  of  blood. 

For  two  hundred  years  the  Mongols  ruled  and 
dominated  Russia,  and  the  people  were  gradually 
influenced,  until  to-day  there  are  many  customs 
which  are  national  but  which  came  from  the  East. 
In  China  I  have  seen  the  merchant  making  up  his 
accounts  by  the  manipulation  of  beads  on  wires. 
As  I  have  said,  you  cannot  go  into  a  bank  in  Moscow 


THE    RUSSIANS  103 

or  a  store  without  hearing  the  rattle  of  the  beads  on  the 
tchotte,  whilst  salesmen  are  reckoning  the  total  of  a 
customer's  purchases.  In  Western  China,  at  Chung- 
king-fu,  I  have  heard  the  whir  of  the  watchman's 
rattle  giving  all  good  people  abed  warning  that  they 
are  being  looked  after — and  incidentally  also  giving 
warning  to  any  thieves  that  may  be  about  that  a 
constable  is  at  hand.  I  have  been  in  the  country 
house  of  a  Russian  friend  near  Moscow,  and  have 
been  awakened  at  dead  of  night  by  the  rattle  of  the 
watchman  whilst  making  his  rounds.  It  is  the  habit 
of  most  Russian  men  to  wear  an  overcoat  when  out 
of  doors  ;  it  makes  the  foreigner  smile  that  even 
on  a  broiling  midsummer  day  the  Russian  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  streets  wearing  an  overcoat.  It  is  a 
custom  distinctly  Tartar,  amongst  whom  it  has 
always  been  considered  indecorous  to  appear  in 
public  without  the  lower  part  of  the  body  being 
well  hidden.  Many  Russians  shave  the  head ;  so 
do  the  Tartars.  In  the  prison  houses  of  Siberia  I 
have  seen  hundreds  of  criminals  with  one  side  of 
their  head  shaven,  so  they  would  be  more  easily 
recognised  if  they  attempted  to  escape.  Many 
words  in  common  use  in  Russia  are  taken  from 
Tartar  languages.  Besides,  you  frequently  come  across 
castes  of  feature,  slightly  oblique  eyes,  slightly  raised 
cheek  bones,  which  suggest  a  Tartar  ancestor. 

The  facility  with  which  the  Russian  can  acquire 
a  new  language  suggests  an  inborn  capability,  which 
I  believe  was  developed  in  the  hazy  past  when  the 
Russians  were  nomads,  and  were  constantly  coming 


104  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

into  contact  with  other  races  and  acquiring  their 
speech.  Beneficially  influenced  by  contact  with  the 
West,  the  Slavs  wandered  eastward  when  the  power 
of  the  Mongols  was  broken.  Indeed,  it  was  the 
migratory  habits  of  the  peasantry,  wandering  over  the 
land  in  great  numbers,  entirely  forsaking  one  district 
after  settling  for  a  year  or  so,  that  was  the  cause  of 
serfhood,  the  compulsory  fixing  of  the  peasants  to 
the  soil  in  their  own  district.  Nomadism  was  so 
much  in  the  blood  that  the  chaining  of  people  to 
particular  districts  had  the  effect  of  killing  them 
off.  One  of  the  arguments  put  forward  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  serfs  in  the  later  'fifties  was,  that 
if  the  peasant  population  was  to  be  saved  from 
dwindling  they  must  be  allowed  to  resume  their  old 
natural  habits  of  migration. 

To  understand  this  restlessness  in  the  people 
will  help  us  further  to  understand  the  restlessness 
there  is  in  religious  matters — Russia  is  the  land  of 
nonconformity — and  the  feverishness  in  regard  to 
politics.  Like  other  Western  friends  of  Russia  I 
would  like  to  see  a  more  democratic  system  of  govern- 
ment than  that  which  prevails  ;  but  whatever  form 
of  government  be  set  up  in  Russia,  the  same  churning, 
dissatisfied,  impatient  movements  will  be  found. 

To-day  the  Russian  is  a  wanderer.  I  am  not 
thinking  of  the  individual  in  society  who  seeks 
pleasure  in  whatever  European  capitals  or  spas 
happen  to  be  fashionable.  The  ordinary  business 
Russian  is  constantly  travelling.  No  trains  in 
Europe  are  so  crowded  as  the  Russian  trains.  The 


THE    RUSSIANS  105 

mir  (the  village  commune)  did  much  to  bring  back  the 
wanderer  to  look  after  his  bit  of  land.  Recent  land 
legislation,  providing  the  moudjiks  with  individually- 
owned  plots,  has  also  done  a  great  deal  in  fastening 
them  to  the  land.  But  the  young  men  are  constantly 
moving  to  some  other  part  of  the  country  where  they 
get  better  pay,  or  they  emigrate  to  Siberia,  about 
which  they  hear  as  wonderful  tales  as  the  English 
peasantry  hear  about  Canada.  There  is  a  huge 
influx  into  Siberia ;  and  also  there  is  a  considerable 
exodus  from  Siberia,  not  because  it  is  not  a  profitable 
land — in  agricultural  potentialities  it  is  the  twin  coun- 
try to  Canada — but  just  because  the  people  are  restless. 

There  are  numbers  of  bands  of  artisans  who  spend 
a  considerable  part  of  the  year  travelling  from  town 
to  town  doing  work.  Peasants  constantly  move 
into  the  big  towns  to  become  droshki-drivers  or  mill 
hands,  and  then  when  they  have  had  a  few  months 
of  town  life  away  they  go  back  to  their  villages. 

When  the  Russian  cannot  find  any  other  reason 
for  wandering  he  makes  a  pilgrimage.  The  farther 
he  has  to  go,  the  better  he  seems  to  like  it.  In  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem  I  have 
stood  aside  and  watched  bands  of  long-travelled 
and  worn  Russian  pilgrims  crawling  on  their  knees 
to  kiss  what  they  believed  to  be  the  most  precious 
slab  of  stone  in  the  world.  In  the  catacombs  at 
Kiev  I  have  slowly  jostled  a  way  amongst  hundreds 
of  pilgrims.  It  is  the  most  common  thing  in  Russia, 
whether  at  Petrograd  or  Odessa,  Samara  or  Astrakan, 
to  meet  working  men  hundreds,  even  thousands 


106  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

of  miles  from  their  homes.  One  of  the  results  of 
this  constant  wandering  and  intermingling  is,  that 
in  one  way  the  country  is  unique.  Russia  is  a  land 
without  dialects.  The  Yorkshire  man  and  the 
Somersetshire  man,  the  Durham  man  and  the  Cockney 
would  have  difficulty  in  understanding  each  other. 
There  are  no  such  dialects  in  Russia.* 

Then,  as  the  Russians  never  have  any  settled 
hour  for  any  meal,  it  almost  suggests  a  survival  of 
nomadic  times  when  the  wanderers  fed  whenever  it 
suited  them.  Of  course,  in  the  principal  cities 
Western  practices  are  usual ;  but  get  the  slightest 
way  off  the  beaten  track  and  you  run  into  customs 
which  proclaim  the  nomadic  life.  Arrive  at  a 
country  hotel,  and  it  is  nine  chances  to  one  no  sheets 
or  pillows  are  provided.  The  Russian  is  expected 
to  carry  these  with  him ;  but  the  plan  of  not 
providing  would  not  be  common  unless  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  Russians  to  travel  much.  The  old 
rule  prevails  in  the  Russian  railway  sleeping  cars, 
for  after  you  have  paid  for  your  sleeping  place, 
unless  you  produce  your  own  linen,  the  conductor 
will  charge  you  a  rouble  for  a  supply.  Then  again, 
when  you  get  off  the  beaten  track  you  learn  that 
if  you  desire  to  wash  it  is  unusual  to  find  a  basin  ; 
there  is  a  tap,  and  you  wash  in  running  water. 
Russians  mostly  wash  in  running  water,  a  distinct 
survival  of  the  Tartars,  who  would  never  think  of 
washing  in  still  water. 

*  The  pronunciation  of  o  is  not  always  the  same.  The  differ- 
ences in  speech  between  Great  Russians  and  Little  Russians  are 
not  those  of  dialect. 


THE    RUSSIANS  107 

Further,  the  fact  that  for  its  enormous  population 
Russia  has  comparatively  few  towns,  and  very  few 
of  these  can  throw  off  the  resemblance  to  overgrown 
villages,  is  accounted  for  by  the  people  being  roamers, 
and  also,  to  a  considerable  extent,  I  believe,  accounts 
for  the  liberty-loving  characteristics  of  the  people ; 
whilst  the  wide  dispersal  has  prevented  much  con- 
certed action  on  the  part  of  the  people.  The  first 
makings  of  a  town  were  no  more  than  a  camp. 
Gorod,  as  in  Novgorod,  means  an  enclosure.  More 
than  half  the  people  in  England  live  in  towns  ;  more 
than  nine-tenths  of  the  people  in  Russia  live  in 
purely  agricultural  districts.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  name  more  than  a  dozen  cities  in  Russia  with  a 
population  over  50,000.  Town  life  does  not  suit 
the  Russian.  The  death  rate  in  Moscow  is  greater 
than  the  birth  rate,  and  the  increase  in  the  popula- 
tion of  the  old  capital  is  entirely  due  to  immigra- 
tion. So  far  as  statistics  can  be  obtained  to  guide 
one,  there  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  urban 
population  of  Russia  has  increased  during  the  last 
thousand  years. 

The  Russian's  chief  delight  is  to  get  back  to 
primitive  conditions,  to  live  in  a  wood  in  a  datcha, 
usually  a  cottage  made  out  of  rough-hewn  logs. 
There  are  imposing  buildings  in  Russia,  and  the  salons 
of  some  of  the  nobility  are  spacious.  But  when  left 
to  himself  the  Russian  prefers  a  small  room.  The 
Emperor  when  at  his  country  palace  of  Tsarkoe 
Selo  does  not  live  in  the  palace,  but  in  a  modest 
building  no  bigger  than  the  house  of  an  English 


io8  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

country  gentleman  of  quite  moderate  means — in  the 
park  which  surrounds  the  palace. 

The  absence  of  town  life  means  an  absence  of 
stimulus.  It  is  rarely  you  hear  of  an  association 
of  men  interested  in  scientific  and  literary  pursuits. 
I  have  never  come  across,  and  I  have  never  heard  of, 
any  Russian  with  a  scientific  hobby.  In  all  business 
there  is  Orientalism — the  asking  for  more  than  you 
expect,  the  offering  of  less  than  you  are  willing  to 
give.  In  all  transactions  the  inclination  is  to  make 
a  little  "  on  the  side."  I  would  not  like  to  say  there 
are  not  men  in  other  countries  just  as  corrupt  as 
many  that  are  to  be  found  in  Russia ;  but  in  Russia 
it  is  more  accepted  that  if  you  want  an  official  to 
do  his  duty  without  dilatoriness,  the  best  way  is  to 
make  him  a  present — a  custom  that  is  universal  in  the 
East. 

Like  every  other  nation,  the  Russians  have 
traits  which  are  the  consequence  of  the  kind  of  land 
in  which  they  live.  Though  there  are  little  groups 
of  families  in  the  villages — the  Russian,  though  a 
countryman,  has  never  adopted  ranch  life  such  as 
it  exists  in  America — and  though  there  is  constant 
individual  migration,  the  enormous  distances  which 
separate  the  groups  have  hindered  anything  in  the 
nature  of  co-operation  in  the  past;  though  in  quite 
recent  years  considerable  success  has  attended  the 
agricultural  co-operative  movement,  and  has  tended 
to  throw  the  Russian  back  on  himself  and  make  him 
introspective  and  moody,  the  eternal  featureless 
steppes — you  can  travel  a  thousand  miles  and  never 


THE    RUSSIANS  109 

notice  the  slightest  difference  in  the  landscape : 
endless  plains  and  melancholy  woods — has  affected 
the  temperament  of  the  people. 

The  Russian  has  a  few  months  of  glorious,  ex- 
hilarating weather,  and  then,  almost  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  the  land  is  covered  with  long,  sad  winter. 
That  is  just  like  the  Russian  himself.  There  are 
times  when  he  is  as  gay,  frolicsome,  and  as  irre- 
sponsible as  a  schoolboy,  and  then  he  has  long 
stretches  of  dourness. 

Such  a  land  influences  man  toward  the  super- 
natural, toward  religion ;  and  in  a  blind,  earnest  way 
there  is  no  man  more  naturally  religious  than  the 
Russian.  The  climate  makes  him  reflective.  The 
monotony  of  the  landscape  has  affected  the  litera- 
ture of  the  country.  But  as  the  country  is  wide  and 
expansive,  so  is  the  Russian  in  his  views  of  life.  He 
is  never  mean  or  petty.  There  is  something  impres- 
sively big  about  the  generosity  and  toleration  with 
which  he  regards  the  world.  In  the  country  parts 
of  other  lands  the  villagers  are  heavy,  loutish,  dull- 
witted,  and  the  people  are  narrow.  That  type  is 
non-existent  in  Russia.  The  moudjik  may  be 
illiterate,  he  may  be  steeped  in  absurd  superstition, 
but  he  always  has  an  intelligent  countenance ;  and 
when  he  talks  with  you  it  is  with  alertness. 

Physically,  and  as  a  nation,  the  Russians  are  the 
finest-made  men  in  the  world.  Both  men  and 
women — especially  amongst  the  peasant  class — have 
splendid  teeth.  I  have  never  been  able  to  discover 
the  secret  of  the  perfection  of  Russian  teeth,  but 


no  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

have  an  idea  that  it  is  partly  due  to  the  small  quan- 
tity of  meat  and  the  great  quantity  of  black  bread 
they  eat.  The  colour  of  complexions  is  not  good  in 
Russia,  ascribable  to  the  hard,  dry  climate ;  but 
the  folk  have  a  dignity  of  carriage  and  a  free  courtesy 
of  manner  which  always  win  admiration.  Their 
hospitality  is  spontaneous.  And  amongst  the  things 
to  be  noticed  is  the  modesty  of  the  people  ;  they 
never  boast — never. 

Russia  to-day  is  the  outcome  of  harsh  Mongolian 
rule,  subservience  to  the  autocracy  of  the  Greek 
Church,  and  a  passionate  instinct  for  freedom — the 
relic  of  nomadic  times.  So,  whilst  the  outer 
world  thinks  of  the  harshness  of  Russia  toward  the 
individual,  Russia,  as  distinct  from  the  government 
of  the  country,  is  always  vigorous  in  the  champion- 
ship of  individual  rights'. 

It  is  a  phenomenon  that,  whilst  the  Slav  loves 
freedom,  he  should  be  under  the  most  autocratic 
rule.  The  explanation  is  that  whilst  freedom  is  a 
racial  characteristic,  the  government  is  a  direct  con- 
tinuation of  the  system  when  the  Tartars  had  pos- 
session. Whenever  given  an  opportunity  to  develop 
on  their  own  lines,  the  Russians  move  toward 
brotherhood  in  its  widest  sense. 

We  have  heard  of  bands  of  folk  in  Western  lands 
forming  communal  colonies,  living  the  simple  life, 
sharing  in  common  :  and  all  the  endeavours  have 
ended  in  failure.  But  in  autocratic  Russia  the 
sharing  in  common  has  been  in  practice  for  centuries. 
The  mir  was  a  village  commune  ;  the  land  was  held 


THE    RUSSIANS  in 

in  joint  possession  under  direction  of  elders,  and  all 
worked  for  the  general  interest.  It  is  the  inflow  of 
Western  ideas  which  is  breaking  down  the  brotherly 
spirit  behind  the  mir,  and  on  the  principle  that 
victory  should  go  to  the  strong,  the  move  is  toward 
individual  ownership. 

Something  like  this  had  to  come,  for  whilst  the 
possessions  of  the  mir  remained  the  same,  the  popu- 
lation increased  and  shares  decreased.  So  young 
men  had  to  be  turned  out  to  battle  for  themselves, 
and,  succeeding,  put  thoughts  into  the  minds  of  the 
strongest  who  remained  behind,  that  they  would  do 
better  if  they  toiled  for  their  own  family  instead  of 
for  the  family  of  the  village. 

You  can  draw  a  thick,  straight,  unindented  line 
between  the  overlord  government  of  the  autocracy 
and  the  truly  democratic  government  by  the  people 
in  their  lesser  affairs.  For  as  the  rights  of  the  in- 
dividual are  a  growth  from  the  old  tribal  communism, 
so  the  desire  for  more  public  control  in  national 
affairs  is  the  fruit  of  the  recognition  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  individual  to  concern  himself  with  the 
welfare  of  the  individuals  who  compose  the  com- 
munity. 

Here,  again,  one  strikes  another  phenomenon  of 
Russia.  Whilst  the  masses  consider  autocracy  un- 
fitted for  their  present  state,  and  desire  more  demo- 
cratic rule,  they  are  gradually  abandoning  the  field 
to  which  democracy  is  often,  but  erroneously,  sup- 
posed to  lead — namely,  communism.  It  is  not  for 
me  to  raise  any  defence  of  the  autocratic  method  of 


ii2  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

government ;  but  however  much  it  fails  in  adminis- 
tration, it  is  benevolent  in  intention,  and — trying 
to  look  at  the  whole  thing  with  a  judicial  mind — 
one  can  appreciate  that  many  of  the  tempestuous 
outbursts  which  Russia  has  had  to  face  have  not 
been  so  much  due  to  the  repression  of  the  autocracy 
as  to  the  passionate  demand  for  freedom  on  the 
part  of  the  people.  We  are  shocked  by  the  manner 
in  which  the  uprisings  are  subdued ;  also,  some- 
times, we  are  disposed  to  confuse  the  causes  which 
provoked  the  uprisings  with  the  terrible  punish- 
ments which  are  consequent. 

It  is  seen  how  fascinating  is  the  study  of  the 
consciousness  of  Russia  beneath  its  development. 
It  is  occasionally  called  a  land  of  contrasts  ;  and 
so  it  is.  Had  Russia  ever  developed  a  body  of 
great  national  leaders — her  history  is  strangely 
deficient  of  such  men — her  place  amongst  the  nations 
of  the  world  would  have  been  very  different  from 
what  it  is  to-day. 

But  the  more  you  understand  the  Russian  char- 
acter as  demonstrated  through  the  centuries,  the 
more  you  are  forced  to  a  pained  acceptance  of  the 
fact  that  Russia  is  deficient  in  will  power.  Her 
ideals  are  noble  ;  the  individual  Russian  has  in  the 
heart  of  him  the  most  generous  impulses.  But 
Russia  has  not  produced  leaders.  The  scattered, 
vagrant  population  will  partly  account  for  this. 
And  she  has  always  yielded  to  the  will  power  of  other 
races.  She  was  leading  the  fraternal  pastoral  life 
when  the  Greek  Church  came  along  and  imposed  a 


MOUDJ1KS 


THE    RUSSIANS  113 

church  government  which  the  people  could  not 
resist.  The  Mongols  came,  exercised  dominant  power, 
and  taught  the  Russian  chiefs  how  to  check  the 
peasantry,  to  cow  them,  to  keep  them  in  vassalage. 
So  the  present  system  of  government,  the  exercise 
of  power,  is  an  alien  product,  and  is  not  representa- 
tive of  Russia.  I  am  far  from  arguing  there  should 
be  a  holus-bolus  rearrangement.  My  own  belief  is 
that  if  free  political  rein  were  given  to  Russia  there 
would  be  tragedy,  and  not  improvement ;  for 
idealism  would  outstrip  practicality — and  we  live 
in  a  practical  and  not  in  an  ideal  world. 

When  you  proceed — and  it  is  easy  enough — to 
direct  the  finger  at  the  vices  for  which  Russia  is 
notorious,  you  have  to  keep  in  recollection  that 
whilst  she  owes  the  foreigner  much  for  her  advance- 
ment, it  is  also  the  foreigner  who  is  responsible  for 
every  debasement.  One  knows  how  there  is  a  great 
awakening  of  the  Russian  spirit — one  prays  it  may 
be  well  directed — and  though  the  founder  of  Petro- 
grad,  Peter,  is  sometimes  called  "  the  Great,"  and 
was  no  doubt  actuated  by  laudable  motives,  his 
passion  for  foreign  institutions,  which  he  ruthlessly 
enforced  on  the  people,  did  not  facilitate  but  retarded 
national  development.  It  was  he  who,  inheriting  an 
Asiatic  rule,  grafted  it  on  to  what  he  conceived  to 
be  Western  civilisation.  The  receptive  Slav  was 
eager  for  enlightenment.  Since  Peter's  time,  Ger- 
many, France,  and  England  have  exercised  influ- 
ence on  the  aspirations  of  the  people.  But  an 
Asiatic  inheritance,  wedded  to  European  enlighten- 


ii4  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

ment,  did  not  count  for  peace  in  Russia.  It  accen- 
tuated the  restlessness  of  the  Slav  temperament. 
It  was  teaching  the  bird  to  fly  and  cooping  him  in 
a  cage.  It  made  him  recall  his  early  days  of  freedom. 
We  are  told  that  "  East  is  east  and  West  is  west," 
and  that  never  the  twain  can  meet.  But  they  have 
met  in  Russia,  though  they  have  not  coalesced,  and 
that  is  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  political  ferment 
in  the  realm  of  the  Czar. 

The  more  enlightened  Russia  became — saturated 
with  the  literature,  the  science,  and  the  philosophy 
of  neighbouring  countries,  and  the  ferment  began  to 
work — the  more  tightly  did  autocracy  tighten  the 
bolts  of  its  authority. 

At  times  there  has  been  stray  action  taken  to 
stem  foreign  influence  because  of  its  unsettling 
effect.  Many  good  Russians,  zealous  for  the  well- 
being  of  their  land,  have  nevertheless  resisted  the 
power  of  the  foreigner.  Two  heavy  streams  of 
opinion  have  collided  :  that  of  the  Slavophils  or 
Nationalists,  and  that  of  the  Zapadniki  or  Westerns. 
Those  parties  exist  to-day.  You  will  find  the 
strength  of  the  Zapadniki  in  Petrograd,  and  the 
force  of  the  Slavophils  in  Moscow.  The  war  has 
given  an  impetus  to  the  Slavophils.  It  has  in  innu- 
merable ways  directed  attention  to  how  Russia  has 
been  dependent  on  foreign  countries.  There  has 
grown  up,  not  an  anti-foreign  feeling,  but  a  vigorous 
pro-Russian  feeling,  which  is  vented  in  the  repeated 
declarations  that  Russia  must  be  self-dependent, 
must  be  more  practical  and  less  dreamy,  must 


THE   RUSSIANS  115 

advance  not  by  modelling  itself  on  alien  institutions, 
but  by  developing  itself  on  Russian  lines. 

As  is  usual  in  all  great  wars,  there  have  been 
grave  allegations,  recriminations,  misunderstandings  ; 
but  in  this  war,  which  makes  it  distinct  from  all 
other  wars  in  which  Russia  has  been  engaged,  the 
whole  country,  and  all  those  in  it,  the  revolutionaries 
as  well  as  the  most  unflinching  supporters  of  the 
autocracy,  are  animated  by  the  same  wholesome 
spirit.  If  that  spirit  will  prevail  after  the  war,  if 
there  will  be  the  same  single-mindedness  to  elevate 
Russia  as  there  is  to  overthrow  Germany,  Russia 
will  have  embarked  on  a  blessed  evolution. 

Those  who  believe  that  the  new  salvation  for 
Russia  will  be  on  British,  American,  or  even  on 
German  lines  make  a  mistake.  Russia  has  taken 
mental  nutriment  from  the  West  because  she  has 
not  been  sufficiently  grown  to  forage  for  herself. 
Wherever  she  has  foraged  she  has  done  well.  Russia 
is  like  a  great  baby  grown  into  a  giant,  whilst  still 
suckling  at  a  foreign  breast.  There  have  long  been 
indications  of  the  giant,  conscious  of  strength,  unable 
to  direct  it,  but  quite  sure  he  needs  no  more  suckling. 
That  in  the  heart  of  Russia  there  is  a  tremendous  force 
— though  the  will  power  to  which  I  have  referred 
has  been  a  latent  quality — which  one  day,  not  long 
distant,  will  reveal  itself,  I  verily  believe.  But  as 
the  Russians  themselves  are  only  dimly  conscious  of 
the  lines  of  their  own  future  it  would  be  mere  specu- 
lation for  a  foreigner  to  attempt  to  indicate  them — 
except  that  they  will  be  Slavophil  and  not  Western. 


n6  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

We  must  try  to  realise  what  the  Slav  tempera- 
ment is.  I  have  already  referred  to  its  idealism 
and  its  dislike  of  restraint.  But  we  have  to  go 
deeper  if  we  would  understand  better.  In  reading 
a  Russian  novel  or  listening  to  Russian  music  you 
know  that  the  principal  note  is  melancholy.  When 
Pushkin  read  Gogol's  "  Dead  Souls  "  he  exclaimed, 
"  My  God,  how  sad  our  Russia  is  !  " 

There  is  mirth  to  be  found  in  Russia,  but  it  is 
artificial  and  not  natural.  The  real  Russian  is 
a  mystic — and  whatever  Russia  will  do  in  the  future 
will  be  permeated  with  mysticism  and  idealism. 
Knowing  this,  we  can  be  assured  that  on  whatever 
lines  her  advancement  takes  place  in  her  free  growth 
of  individuality  as  a  nation,  it  will  not  be  on  Western 
lines,  which  are  neither  mystical  nor  ideal.  And  the 
mysticism  which  floods  the  soul  of  the  Russian — the 
consequence  of  living  through  countless  generations 
in  a  great,  sombre,  lone  land — has  made  him  the  most 
susceptible  of  men.  I  once  heard  an  Englishman  in 
a  Moscow  club,  supercilious  about  business  qualities, 
describe  the  Russians  as  "  bearded  babies."  He 
spoke  truer  than  he  knew,  for  he  was  bearing  testi- 
mony to  the  simplicity  of  their  character.  What 
the  Russian  is  in  business  so  he  is  in  faith :  he  is 
simple-minded.  The  weird  silence  of  his  desolate 
steppes  has  impressed  him  till  he  is  naturally  religious. 
Strange  religions  have  exercised  their  sway  upon  him. 
When  he  writes  a  novel  he  is  mystical.  When  he  paints 
a  picture  there  is  mysticism  in  it.  And  mysticism  is 
own  brother  to  pessimism  in  the  Slav  temperament. 


THE    RUSSIANS  117 

Always  under  the  frippery  and  the  gaiety  of 
merry  evenings  in  Russia  you  know  there  is  sadness. 
The  poorest  moudjik  is  constantly  asking  himself 
the  eternal  questions.  You  meet  a  lady  in  society, 
charming,  evanescent,  a  fascinating  butterfly  con- 
versationalist, and  you  know  she  has  not  a  care 
in  the  world.  But  you  call  upon  her  the  next  after- 
noon to  have  tea  and  you  find  her  in  the  depths  of 
depression,  also  asking  the  eternal  questions. 

In  no  country  in  the  world  is  suicide  so  common  as 
in  Russia.  There  is  some  truth  in  the  assertion  of 
superficial  observers  that  the  vagaries  of  the  Russian, 
one  day  boisterous  with  enthusiasm,  the  next  day 
moody  and  pessimistic,  are  due  to  the  artificial  life 
of  society,  the  late  hours,  the  excitement.  The  real 
cause  is  the  temperament  of  the  people.  It  is  not 
the  system  of  government  which  makes  people  sad 
— the  vast  majority  of  Russians  never  bother 
their  heads  about  the  system  of  government — 
but  pessimism  is  the  inheritance  of  the  Slav  race. 
If  a  lofty-souled  poet  devised  an  angelic  rule  the 
Russian  would  still  be  sad.  Therefore  we  cannot  talk 
about  Russia  emerging  upon  "  a  bright  era  of  happi- 
ness." Russia  will  never  be  bright,  and  the  people 
never  will  be  happy.  But  Russia  will  emerge  upon 
an  era  of  Slav  nationality — not  because  Russia  is 
all  Slav,  but  because  Slavism  is  the  yeast  in  nation- 
ality—and then  she  will  be  forceful  and  individual. 

The  politician  with  a  propaganda  and  the  man 
who  has  been  seared  by  coming  into  unhappy  contact 
with  autocracy,  will  very  likely  have  other  pro- 


ii8  RUSSIA    OF    TO-DAY 

grammes  than  I  have  ventured  to  sketch.  Probably 
they  will  remind  me  that  the  Russian  character  is  so 
complex  that  no  foreigner,  of  quite  different  race  and 
a  Western  way  of  thinking,  can  ever  fathom  and  in- 
terpret it.  That  is  absolutely  true ;  but  countless  Russ- 
ians have  devoted  their  literary  skill  to  interpreting 
the  national  character  and  he  who  reads  can  learn. 

The  problem  of  Russia  is  aggravated  by  the  fact 
that  within  the  border  lines  of  the  Empire  are  many 
other  races  which  are  Russian  by  law,  but  with  no 
Slavic  ambitions — a  subject  with  which  I  will  deal 
in  a  subsequent  chapter.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
Russian  territory  was  quadrupled.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Empire  covered 
three  million  square  miles  ;  to-day  it  covers  eight 
million  square  miles.  And  though  Russia  is  the  biggest 
nation  in  Europe,  it  is  also  the  youngest.  She  has  a 
population  of  about  120,000,000  white  people,  and 
yet  it  has  been  within  little  more  than  a  century  that 
she  has  taken  her  place  as  a  great  Power. 

Her  youth  as  a  nation  must  always  be  borne  in 
mind  when  considering  her  future.  There  are  nations 
in  Europe  which  have  run  their  race  and  are  old  and 
feeble  ;  there  are  others  vibrant  with  the  strength 
of  lusty  manhood ;  but  Russia  as  a  nation  has  been 
under  the  tutelage  of  foreign  countries  and  only  now 
is  she  really  awakening — the  nation  as  a  whole 
and  not  the  political  section  of  it — to  consider 
what  her  manhood  shall  be  ?  Of  only  one  thing 
can  we  be  certain  :  in  the  majesty  of  her  individuality 
she  will  pursue  a  line  of  her  own. 


CHAPTER  X 

ALIEN     RUSSIANS 

REFERENCE  has  already  been  made  in  these  pages  to 
the  enormous  influence  foreign  countries  have  had 
on  the  development  of  Russia.  There  is  scarcely 
a  phase  of  life  which  has  not  been  copied  from  some 
other  land.  Of  course,  nations  are  interdependent ; 
they  give  to  and  take  from  each  other.  Russia 
has  taken  enormously  from  other  nations  and  given 
very  little  in  return.  Yet,  alongside  this,  you  have 
the  fact  that  Russia  has  absorbed  many  races  in 
widening  the  borders  of  her  Empire.  Russia  comes 
second  to  Great  Britain  in  the  variety  of  races  and 
confusion  of  tongues  beneath  her  flag.  But  whilst 
the  many  races  under  the  Union  Jack  are  scattered 
throughout  the  world,  the  different  alien  races  which 
live  beneath  the  flag  with  the  double  eagle  are  all 
enclosed  within  one  ring-fence  of  something  like 
25,000  miles  in  circumference.  To  trace  Russia's 
line  of  territory  would  produce  a  measurement  about 
the  same  as  a  stretch  round  the  world. 

Russia  is  buttressed  with  alien  races.  I  mention 
the  chief.  There  are  the  Finns  in  the  north ; 
then  the  Baltic  province  people  of  German  origin  ; 
then  the  Poles  ;  then  the  variety  of  races  north  of 
the  Carpathians  reaching  to  the  Black  Sea  ;  and, 
as  you  journey  south  through  the  Caucasus  in  Georgia 
119 


120  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

and  Armenia,  or  away  east  over  the  Ural  Mountains 
into  Siberia,  you  travel  through  a  museum  of  Oriental 
or  semi-Oriental  races.  Above  all  there  are  the 
Jews,  and  Russia  has  within  her  borders  more  than 
half  the  Jews  in  the  world. 

Now,  whilst  most  of  the  alien  races  in  the  Empire 
count  for  little,  there  are  others  which  count  for 
a  great  deal,  principally  the  Jews  and  those  who  are 
German  in  origin,  though  not  in  nationality.  Russians 
have  their  own  wonderful  qualities,  but  in  influence 
upon  the  great  outer  world  they  are  practically 
dormant  so  far.  If  you  are  engaged  in  commerce, 
you  usually  deal  with  a  Russian  having  a  German 
name,  and  in  the  sciences,  the  learned  professions 
and  politics  you  generally  find  it  is  the  Jewish  brain 
which  is  to  the  front. 

Take  the  case  of  the  Jews.  Heavy  restrictions 
are  placed  upon  them.  Millions  of  them  have  been 
confined  to  particular  areas.  Unless  they  have  special 
university  attainments,  they  are  not  allowed  to  live 
in  certain  cities.  Many  Russians  make  a  grimace 
of  disgust  when  there  is  reference  to  the  Jews.  All 
of  this  the  Western  man  does  not  understand,  and  he 
resents  and  criticises  the  action  of  Russia.  I  have 
made  a  study  of  the  Jews,  and  I  do  not  think  I  will 
be  accused  of  being  antagonistic  to  them.*  But 
I  do  understand  the  Russian  frame  of  mind  toward 
the  Jews,  and  that  is  the  point  to  be  considered  in 
'he  present  connection. 

Were  I  a  Russian  and  asked  to  explain  my 
*  See  the  Author's  book,  "  The  Conquering  Jew." 


ALIEN   RUSSIANS  121 

antipathy  to  the  Jew,  I  would — if  I  answered  honestly 
— reply  somewhat  like  this  :  "  The  Jew  is  much 
more  clever  than  I  am.  He  may  have  a  soul  and 
an  aspiration  after  ideals,  but  I  am  never  conscious 
of  them.  Whenever  I  come  in  contact  with  him  he 
is  scheming  to  get  advantage  of  me,  and  he  generally 
succeeds  if  I  give  him  the  chance.  In  business  I 
cannot  live  in  competition  with  the  Jew.  Wherever 
the  Jews  are  allowed  to  live  they  get  all  the  trade, 
and  the  Russian  is  pushed  on  one  side.  After  all, 
Russia  belongs  to  the  Russians,  and  why  should 
these  people  be  allowed  to  oust  us  ?  The  Jew 
always  squeezes  the  poor  peasants  who  come  within 
his  grasp.  He  is  quicker-witted  than  I  am.  So  he 
is  successful  at  the  universities,  and  he  rather  mono- 
polises the  professions  of  the  law  and  medicine.  He 
cannot  have  such  a  love  for  Russia  as  I  have,  because 
he  is  not  a  Russian.  He  is  a  very  shrewd  politician, 
but  I  think  that  when  he  talks  about  political  liberty 
he  is  chiefly  thinking  of  means  to  give  the  Jews 
greater  power  in  Russia.  One  of  the  reasons  why 
political  enfranchisement  does  not  move  faster  in 
Russia  than  it  does  is  because  we  know  that,  if  there 
were  full  political  liberty  here  as  you  have  it  in  the 
West,  the  Jews,  with  their  superior  political  in- 
stinct, would  soon  be  our  masters,  and  that  is  what 
we  will  not  have." 

Most  of  us  know  the  answers  to  all  this ;  but  I 
am  sure  I  am  accurately  representing  the  thoughts 
of  the  fair-  spoken  ordinary  Russian  on  the  Jewish 
question.  The  Jews,  however,  have  played  an 


122  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

honourable  part  in  the  war.  Thousands  of  them 
are  serving  in  the  Russian  Army,  and  many  of  them 
have  given  their  lives  ;  but  it  always  causes  heart- 
burn amongst  the  Jews  that  not  one  of  their  number 
is  allowed  to  be  an  officer  in  the  Russian  Army. 
Some  of  the  restrictions  against  the  Jews  have 
recently  been  removed  ;  there  is  now  more  freedom 
for  them  to  settle  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
than  was  formerly  the  case.  Whether  Russia  will 
ever  give  the  Jews  equal  rights  with  Russians,  I 
have  no  means  of  knowing.  That  it  would  be  to 
the  commercial  advantage  of  Russia  I  am  sure,  but 
that  it  would  aid  in  the  development  of  Russia's 
peculiar  idealistic  characteristics  I  very  much  doubt. 
Now  take  the  German  element.  In  trade,  Russia 
has  for  a  generation  been  a  colony  of  Germany. 
And  when  you  go  into  the  big  business  houses  in 
any  of  the  great  cities  you  may  deal  with  a  Russian, 
but  the  chances  are  he  will  have  a  German  name 
and  the  head  of  the  firm,  or  his  father,  has  come 
from  the  Baltic  provinces.  There  are  great  and 
striking  exceptions  ;  but  in  a  general  description — 
and  in  dealing  with  a  huge  subject  generalities  must 
be  allowed — Russia  has  been  mainly  dependent  in 
the  near  past  on  manufactured  goods  imported  from 
Germany,  and  her  principal  businesses  are  run  by 
Russians  of  German  origin.  I  have  made  a  calcu- 
lation that  85  per  cent,  of  the  business  of  Russia, 
at  one  stage  or  another,  passes  through  the  hands 
of  men  of  German  origin.  It  is  the  knowledge  of 
this,  behind  the  fury  of  war,  which  is  stirring  the 


ALIEN   RUSSIANS  123 

Russian  to  a  determination  that  when  peaceful  times 
come  his  country  will  gird  herself  to  industrial 
action.  I  have  stories  yet  to  tell  of  what  Russia 
has  accomplished,  so  that  she  be  no  longer  the 
vassal  in  commerce  of  any  nation. 

Now,  no  mind — unless  it  be  the  mind  of  the 
Jew — could  differ  more  radically  from  the  Russian 
than  the  German  mind.  Peter  the  Great  invited 
the  German  to  his  Empire.  The  new  capital  of 
Petrograd  was  largely  made  in  Germany.  The  Ger- 
man colonist  lived  isolated  in  the  towns  and  preened 
himself  in  his  superiority  before  the  gaze  of  the 
mere  moudjik.  The  Germanic  race  got  its  foot  well 
into  Russia.  Nearly  all  business  Russians  speak 
German.  Yaroslav,  the  city  of  millionaires,  gave 
all  its  official  posts  to  Germans.  The  Director  of 
the  Lyceum  of  Jurisprudence,  the  Government 
Architect,  the  Government  Engineer,  all  were  Ger- 
mans. Petrograd  had  its  German  daily  paper.  In 
Government  offices  in  Petrograd  it  was  customary 
to  hear  German  spoken.  Though  the  tongue  is  now 
forbidden,  I  have  been  informed  it  can  be  some- 
times heard  even  in  these  days  of  war. 

But  the  mass  of  the  people,  because  so  many  of 
the  officials  have  German  names,  because  the  bulk 
of  the  best  shops  belong  to  folk  with  German  names, 
have  bitterly  disliked  the  Germans.  Long  before 
the  war  a  peasant  was  acquitted  by  the  local  court 
after  being  charged  with  doing  someone  a  bodily 
hurt  on  it  being  represented  that  the  injured  man 
had  called  him  a  German. 


i24  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  German  Russian  was  inclined  to  sneer  at 
the  unpractically  of  the  pure  Russians.  When 
travelling  in  the  south  I  have  had  pointed  out  to  me 
the  neat  prosperity  of  the  German  colonists  (quite 
true)  and  the  untidy,  lackadaisical,  let-things-slide 
condition  of  Russian  villages  (quite  true,  also). 
Peter  the  Great  was  the  first  pro-German.  The 
moudjik  still  uses  "  German  "  as  an  adjective  mean- 
ing foreign  and  open  to  suspicion.  German  books 
written  on  Russia  are  full  of  sneers  at  the  Russian's 
lack  of  culture  ;  they  tell  you  how  her  one  salvation 
lies  in  adopting  German  methods.  And  German 
influence  and  German  thought  have  been  running 
like  vari-coloured  threads  through  Russia ;  are 
running  at  this  moment  through  educated  society 
in  Russia  ;  rather,  I  ought  to  have  written  society 
in  Petrograd,  for  most  of  us  make  the  error  of  draw- 
ing our  conclusions  about  all  Russia  from  the  official 
capital,  whereas  Petrograd  is  the  worst  city  in  the 
whole  of  the  Empire  in  which  to  study  the  true 
Russian  character.  I  have  found  that  character  in 
Moscow,  in  Odessa,  in  Samara,  away  out  in  Irkutsk, 
but  rarely  in  Petrograd. 

For  the  time,  Poland  has  been  wrested  from 
Russia.  I  was  in  Warsaw  during  its  worst  days,  and 
although  it  would  be  folly  to  assert  that  the  Poles 
were  enthusiastically  pro-Russians,  they  joyed  in 
the  belief  that  Poland  was  destined  to  regain  its 
autonomous  nationality.  They  will  never  get  that 
from  Germany.  For  the  old  rule  of  Russia  and  the 
new  rule  of  Germany,  the  Pole  has  nothing  to  say ; 


ALIEN    RUSSIANS  125 

but  he  takes  it  there  is  a  promise  by  the  Czar  that 
once  the  iron  rod  of  the  Germans  has  been  broken, 
Poland  will  not  be  a  disrupted  country  under  different 
masters,  but  will  resume  something  like  its  old  in- 
dependence; the  Russian,  German,  and  Austrian 
Polands  will  be  united,  and  governed  after  the  style 
of  a  British  dominion  with  the  Czar  as  overlord.  The 
Poles  are  the  natural  aristocrats  of  Central  Europe  ; 
there  is  a  native  distinction  about  the  nobility,  a 
grace  in  carriage  and  a  culture  in  manner  which  is 
not  to  be  rivalled  by  any  other  aristocracy  in  the 
world.  If  you  would  know  what  pride  of  race  means, 
you  must  wait  till  you  can  go  to  Warsaw  and  be  the 
guest  of  a  Polish  family  on  a  country  estate.  The 
Poles  have  their  blemishes — I  am  not  going  to  write 
about  them  here — but  they  also  have  generous 
ambitions.  And  if  they  "  play  the  game  "  in  these 
days  of  German  occupation  and  temptation,  they 
will  be  worthy  of  kingly  consideration  by  the  Emperor 
of  All  the  Russias. 

Finland  has  been  described  as  Russia's  Ireland — 
as  Ireland  was  when  she  and  Great  Britain  had 
divergent  views  in  regard  to  administration.  My 
personal  knowledge  of  Finland  is  limited  to  a  short 
visit  of  a  fortnight ;  but  it  is  a  land  of  quiet  fascina- 
tion, studded  with  a  thousand  lakes,  and  ought  to 
be  better  known  to  the  British  holiday-maker.  I 
have  heard  people  declare  Finland  is  thirty  years  in 
advance  of  other  parts  of  the  Russian  Empire.  The 
Finns  are  sullen  under  Russian  suzerainty — the  Czar 
is  their  Grand  Duke — for  they  lack  independence  and 


126  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

have  no  national  flag.  The  Finns  are  "  advanced." 
New  ideas  are  accepted  because  they  are  new. 
Women  sit  in  the  Finnish  Parliament.  In  lieu  of 
personal  military  service  the  Finns  pay  an  annual 
contribution  to  the  Russian  Exchequer.  The  Finn 
has  his  own  coinage.  When  his  postage  stamp  was 
suppressed  he  issued  a  black  one,  and  used  it  along 
with  the  Russian's  "  image  and  superscription." 

The  last  half-century  has  seen  the  development 
of  the  Finn.  Education  is  more  advanced  than  in 
any  other  part  of  the  Empire.  There  are  over 
2,500  students  in  the  University  at  Helsingfors ; 
about  500  of  these  are  women.  Helsingfors  was 
burned  down  early  in  the  last  century.  Its  chief 
buildings  were  rebuilt  by  a  German  architect,  who 
was  a  genius.  It  is  clean  and  tidy,  owning  a  school 
of  art,  and  a  zoological  gardens  containing  no  animals. 
The  factories  in  Finland  are  the  cleanest  in  the 
world.  They  are  worked  by  water-power  from  the 
lake  rapids. 

The  Finn  does  not  consider  that  he  was  conquered 
by  the  Czar  when  he  became  Grand  Duke  of  Finland. 
It  was  a  federation.  He  kept  his  own  army  up  till 
1898.  When  threatened  with  the  universal  army 
rule,  Finland  went  into  mourning  and  tolled  the 
church  bells — and  obtained  a  compromise.  The 
language  question  is  very  acute.  Swedish  is  largely 
spoken,  and  Russian  is  forced  on  the  Finn  as  an 
official  language.  The  street  notices  are  written  in 
three  languages.  The  police  wear  a  German  uniform. 

An  atmosphere  of  superiority  pervades  Finland  ; 


ALIEN    RUSSIANS  127 

were  it  not  for  the  survival  of  his  wizards  and  nature- 
gods,  the  Finn  might  be  in  danger  of  becoming 
smug.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Finns  are  quite 
human.  They  can  play  as  artlessly  as  any  Little 
Russian.  The  women  not  only  graduate  at  the 
University  and  sit  in  the  Diet ;  they  also  follow  the 
trades  of  artisans,  plasterers  and  carpenters,  paper- 
hangers,  and  what  they  will.  There  are  about 
40,000  more  women  than  men  in  Finland.  That 
is  partly  because  so  many  of  the  men  have  gone 
to  America. 

The  holiday  visitor  to  Russia  will  probably  find 
the  hotel  porter  is  a  Lett,  and  it  is  more  likely  than 
not  the  interpreter  he  hires  is  a  Lett.  A  curious 
folk  are  the  Letts — two  millions  of  them,  inhabiting 
country  to  the  south-west  of  Riga  and  nursing  a 
national  ideal  in  spite  of  German  and  Russian 
solicitude  for  their  enlightenment.  A  decade  and  a 
half  ago  Riga  had  a  predominantly  German  char- 
acter. German  was  spoken  more  than  any  other 
language ;  but  to-day  Lettish  has  taken  a  new 
lease  of  life.  A  number  of  Germans  found  it  advan- 
tageous to  adopt  Lettish  names  long  before  the  war 
broke  out.  Like  the  Finns,  and  in  contradiction  of 
the  Russian  habit,  the  Letts  live  in  isolated  dwell- 
ings. They  are  more  prosperous  than  the  real 
Russians.  The  Letts  are  inclined  to  revolution. 
They  are  largely  employed  as  clerks  in  Russia,  and 
have  their  own  clubs,  which  strictly  exclude  other 
nationalities.  As  domestic  servants  they  are  sought 
after  on  account  of  their  honesty. 


128  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Then  there  are  the  Lithuanians.  They  have  the 
country  which  has  been  devastated  by  much  fighting 
and  comprises  the  provinces  of  Vilna,  Grodno, 
Vitebsk,  Mohilev,  and  Minsk ;  it  is  a  marshland 
with  a  good  deal  of  forest.  The  peasant  is  fair,  with 
blue  eyes.  He  is  famous  neither  for  cleanliness  nor 
honesty,  and  is  much  under  the  thumb  of  the  Jew, 
who  abounds  in  this  district  and  monopolises  the 
trade.  The  orthodox  Lithuanian  is  devout.  There 
is  squalor  and  a  general  air  of  dejection. 

Take  a  jump  with  me  far  south,  and  you  will 
be  delighted  as  I  was  with  the  Moldavians  who  live 
in  Bessarabia,  next  door  to  Roumania.  Indeed, 
if  you  talk  higher  politics  in  a  Bucharest  cafe  you 
are  sure  to  hear  that  Bessarabia  is  really  Roumanian 
and  not  Russian.  Anyway,  the  best  dancers  and 
singers  and  bright  birds  of  life  called  Russian  are 
usually  Bessarabian.  The  women  are  attractive, 
with  sparkling  eyes  and  vivacious  manners.  Their 
houses,  or  cassas,  are  always  kept  clean,  and  are 
delightfully  decorated  with  silk  draperies,  bright 
coloured  cushions  (stuffed  with  hay)  and  little  rows 
of  yellow  gourds  hung  from  the  beams  of  the  living- 
room.  The  altar  is  in  a  corner  of  the  room  facing 
east.  It  is  decorated  with  hangings  of  silk  or  cotton, 
candles,  and  flowers  :  a  blessed  loaf  is  kept  under 
the  ikon,  and  sheaves  of  corn  in  the  form  of  a  cross. 
The  Moldavian  men  are  rather  a  clumsy  race.  They 
shave  their  beards  like  the  Little  Russians,  and  are 
much  the  same  in  their  characteristics.  The  girls 
are  allowed  to  choose  their  own  husbands.  The 


ALIEN    RUSSIANS  129 

village  tavern  is  used  as  a  local  club,  and  here  is 
held  what  is  called  the  sokotellos  or  friendly  chat. 
The  suppression  of  spirituous  drink  now  deprives  the 
sokotellos  of  its  chief  charm,  if  not  of  its  essence. 

Think  of  the  innumerable  races  in  the  Caucasus 
and  south  of  the  range.  I  shall  never  forget  a  ride 
I  had  from  Vladikavkas  on  the  European  side  right 
over  to  Tiflis  on  the  Asiatic  side.  The  fascination 
I  found  was  not  in  the  terrible  scenery,  but  in  the 
innumerable  races.  It  would  seem  that  the  races 
of  the  earth  once  went  wandering  and  half  of  them 
bumped  up  against  the  Caucasus  Mountains  and  have 
remained  there  ever  since.  When  I  was  younger  I 
used  to  be  captivated  by  the  exquisite  eyes  of  the 
Georgian  women,  though  the  men  folk  were  a  pleasant, 
easygoing,  not-much-good-for-anything  lot.  There 
were  the  Armenians  at  Erivan,  alert-eyed  and  clever 
and  with  national  aspirations  like  those  of  the  Poles, 
for  half  their  country  was  in  Russian  territory  and 
the  other  half  in  Turkish.  Right  down  to  the  Araxes 
river  I  found  remnants  of  the  old  days  of  Persian 
sovereignty  in  the  costumes  and  the  language  of  the 
people — the  women  are  veiled.  Then  the  hillsmen, 
the  people  from  whom  I  was  to  expect  all  kinds  of 
ear-slitting  troubles,  but  from  whom  I  never  got 
anything  but  genuine,  though  crude,  courtesy. 
What  a  land  !  There  is  a  hillside  on  whose  slopes 
lie  seven  villages,  and  in  each  village  a  different 
language  is  spoken.  In  Tiflis  town,  fifty  languages 
are  spoken. 

It  has  been  my  lot  to  have  vagabonded  all  over 
J 


130  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

the  earth,  and  although  I  have  seen  strange  people 
in  strange  parts,  there  is  no  country  which  is  such  a 
museum  of  races  as  Russia.  Idling  along  the  shores 
of  the  Crimea,  I  have  slept  in  the  huts  of  Tartars,  the 
descendants  of  the  Mongolian  horde  that  once 
threatened  to  overrun  Europe.  In  the  tea-houses 
of  Astrakan  I  have  found  Tartars  sitting  rapt,  listen- 
ing to  the  screech  of  a  gramophone.  On  the  boats 
plying  up  the  Volga  the  meek-faced  Kalmucks  have 
come  and  squatted  on  their  haunches.  Out  on  the 
steppes  of  Siberia  I've  met  the  Kirghis,  and  beyond 
Lake  Baikal  come  across  the  Buriats,  singularly 
like  the  Red  Indians  of  the  American  plains.  The 
personal  pronoun  has  been  dropping  from  my  pen 
rather  frequently  during  the  last  ten  minutes  of 
writing ;  but  I  do  not  think  any  apology  is  necessary, 
because  I  am  pleased  to  have  had  the  opportunities 
to  go  wandering  through  the  by-lanes  of  the  Russian 
Empire. 

It  is  impossible  to  write  about  the  Russian  without 
pointing  to  the  Tartars.  The  Tartars  gripped  Russia 
for  two  hundred  years,  and  their  mark  upon  the 
land  remains  in  many  ways  ;  but  the  modern  Tartar 
has  nothing  heroic  about  him.  He  is  quiet,  un- 
ambitious, industrious,  and  sometimes  efficient.  I 
have  been  in  Tartar  villages  in  European  Russia 
and  it  was  hard  to  get  rid  of  the  illusion  one  was  in 
the  Orient.  The  narrow  streets  are  lined  with 
mud-walled  houses.  There  is  the  mosque  with  its 
minarets  and  a  coffee-shop  where  one  can  get  real 
coffee  in  place  of  the  inevitable  samovar.  From 


ALIEN    RUSSIANS  131 

outside  a  Tartar  habitation  looks  unappetising.  In 
reality  the  Tartars  are  a  clean  people.  Be  persuaded 
to  enter,  and  the  interior  will  be  an  agreeable  sur- 
prise. Divans  and  bright  coloured  rugs  replace  the 
benches  of  the  Great  Russian  peasant.  The  gaudy 
draperies  that  the  Little  Russian  loves  are  here 
in  even  more  profusion.  One,  however,  misses  the 
ikon,  for  the  Tartar  is  a  Mohammedan.  The  Tartar 
peasant  is  prosperous  and  very  hospitable.  The 
women  are  more  emancipated  than  is  generally 
imagined.  I  recall  at  Kazan  finding  a  Tartar  quarter 
of  the  town  built  in  Eastern  style.  The  Tartars 
here  are  wealthy  merchants.  They  have  their 
mosques,  and  full  liberty  as  to  the  practices  of  their 
religion. 

Tartars  are  well  content  with  their  lot.  There 
is  no  political  propaganda,  and  no  national  ideal. 
Yet  they  are  a  virile  race.  The  men  are  broad- 
shouldered  ;  they  have  dark  narrow  eyes,  and  wear 
a  straggling  beard.  They  are  bad  agriculturists. 
The  Tartar,  however,  is  comparatively  well-educated. 
The  Mullah  teaches  the  boys  in  the  village  school. 
The  children  stay  at  school  till  they  are  twelve  years 
of  age.  The  Mohammedan  College  at  Ufa  educates 
the  Mullahs,  and  also  the  ordinary  Tartar  who  needs 
a  higher  education.  Polygamy  is  infrequent.  The 
family  life  doesn't  differ  greatly  from  that  of  other 
Russians  except  that  the  Tartar  women  are  seldom 
allowed  to  work  in  the  fields.  They  grow  very  stout 
and  use  a  quantity  of  rouge  to  enhance  their  charms. 
They  also  blacken  their  teeth  and  the  palms  of  their 


i33  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

hands.  The  superior  degree  of  comfort  enjoyed  by 
a  Tartar  family  to  that  of  the  Russian  in  a  village 
is  marked. 

The  Bashkir  is  another  of  the  Czar's  Mohammedan 
subjects.  His  name  is  said  to  mean  "  Dirty  head." 
No  wonder,  since  his  head  being  shaved  in  childhood 
he  dons  a  skull-cap  which  he  never  removes.  This 
race  is  composite  of  the  Finn  and  the  Mongol.  They 
are  better-looking  than  the  Tartars,  especially  the 
women.  The  men  wear  a  long  white  shirt  and  a 
sleeveless  coat — only  those  of  high  class  may  wear 
sleeves,  and  these  increase  in  size  with  the  wearer's 
dignity.  The  women  wear  harem  skirts  and  a  mass 
of  filigree  jewellery  by  way  of  ornament.  They  are 
allowed  to  labour  in  the  fields,  and  are  not  veiled  ex- 
cept on  special  occasions.  They  live  a  hand-to- 
mouth  existence,  partly  nomadic,  making  rough 
shelter  for  themselves  in  the  summer-time  in  the  hill 
districts  and  wilder  parts  of  the  country.  They 
use  camels  in  place  of  horses,  and  yoke  them  to  the 
plough  ;  but  as  a  rule  they  hire  the  Russian  peasant 
to  till  their  land  for  them. 

The  Russian  race  of  which  the  Western  world  has 
heard  most  since  the  War  began  is  that  of  the 
Cossacks.  I  must  make  it  clear  that  I  do  not  include 
them  amongst  the  alien  races  in  Russia.  They  are 
proud  Russians,  though  with  more  of  the  Tartar  than 
of  the  Slav  in  them.  But  I  introduce  them  here 
because  they  are  in  many  ways  a  people  apart  from 
the  Russians  as  generally  known.  The  Cossacks 
are  the  Kazaki,  the  free  men,  the  descendants  of  the 


ALIEN   RUSSIANS  133 

band  of  men  who  refused  to  serve  either  the  en- 
croaching Tartar  or  Pole,  or  the  tyrannical  ruler 
of  the  land.  In  the  days  of  the  great  invasions, 
this  company  of  free  men  was  formed.  They  were 
the  knights  errant  of  Russia,  resisting  the  strong  on 
behalf  of  the  weak.  Men  of  all  tribes  joined  the 
original  Kazachestvo — there  were  even  Englishmen 
among  them,  it  was  said.  They  took  possession  of 
the  steppe  land  in  the  south,  which  was  well  adapted 
to  the  purpose  of  harbouring  a  body  of  outlaws. 
There  the  grass  grew  to  a  height  over  which  a  rider's 
head  and  shoulders  could  barely  be  seen.  There 
were  also  long  fissures  in  the  grounds,  hundreds  of 
feet  in  depth,  and  stretching  many  miles,  which 
made  ideal  places  of  ambush.  Furthermore,  game 
abounded  and  could  be  easily  caught.  Established 
here,  the  company  of  free  men  acquired  the  military 
arts  of  their  persecutors,  and  made  successful  raids 
on  the  Tartar  or  Polish  caravans  that  ventured 
their  way.  The  Cossack  was  a  kind  of  Robin  Hood. 
He  was  chivalrous  to  women  and  children.  He 
developed  an  extraordinary  skill  in  riding. 

In  time  the  Kazaki  became  a  powerful  bulwark 
against  the  invader.  They  protected  the  native 
villages  and  undertook  a  special  crusade  against  the 
enslaving  of  Christian  children  by  the  Mussulman. 
The  Kazaki  were  always  highly  religious.  They  were 
the  champions  of  the  orthodox  faith.  As  the 
guardians  of  the  country  the  Kazaki  refused  to  pay 
land  taxes.  Exemption  was  wisely  accorded  to 
the  "  free  men  "  and  their  services  as  unmatched 


i34  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

fighters  were  recognised.  They  fought  for  what- 
ever they  considered  to  be  the  right  cause,  and  they 
were  by  disposition  "  agin  the  Government."  Their 
organisation  was  wonderful,  and  a  severe  kind  of 
discipline  was  maintained.  In  the  first  communities 
formed  by  the  Kazaki,  no  women  were  admitted  ; 
a  man  who  brought  so  much  as  his  mother  or  sister 
was  promptly  hanged  !  These  Kazaki  had  to  be 
celibates,  members  of  the  orthodox  religion,  and 
patriotic  Russians.  Their  communities  were  called 
the  Setch.  Members  comprised  adventurers  and 
chivalrous  spirits  of  all  sorts.  It  was  the  very  em- 
bodiment of  romance.  The  village  Kazaki,  men  who 
married  and  lived  in  the  villages  with  their  families, 
would  send  their  sons  to  the  Setch.  It  was  a  high 
calling  to  which  a  baby  might  be  devoted  from  the 
cradle. 

It  was  over  the  tax-paying  that  the  Kazaki 
entered  into  a  bond  with  the  Government.  The 
agreement  was  that  the  Cossack  paid  no  taxes,  but 
gave  military  service  for  life.  The  Cossack's  privileged 
position  has  made  his  village  a  model  of  prosperity 
and  contentment.  The  district  is  exempt  from  general 
administration.  The  heir-apparent  is  chief  Hetman 
or  captain,  and  a  vice-Hetman  represents  him. 

The  Cossack  is  democratic,  with  a  free  system  of 
self-government.  Class  distinctions  are  not  allowed 
to  exist.  Officers  are  chosen  like  civil  officials  by 
the  Government,  and  every  male  Cossack  is  a  soldier 
technically  for  life.  He  serves  twenty  years — three 
in  training,  twelve  in  the  Army,  and  five  in  the 


ALIEN    RUSSIANS  135 

reserve.  The  exceptions  that  exist  apply  to  a 
breadwinner,  a  priest  or  teacher,  or  one  out  of  four 
brothers.  A  paid  substitute  may  be  sent.  The 
Cossack  in  his  military  capacity  finds  his  way  all 
over  the  Empire.  He  has  become  the  object  o'f 
dislike  owing  to  the  unpleasant  weapon  which  he 
uses  when  he  is  keeping  order — a  whip  formed  of 
leather  thongs  in  which  are  enclosed  pieces  of  lead. 
It  is  with  this  knout  that  he  disperses  a  crowd. 

The  Don  Cossacks  are  the  most  enterprising 
agriculturists  in  Russia.  They  invest  in  up-to-date 
machinery  and  take  advantage  of  the  State  Loan 
Banks  to  procure  more  land.  If  the  Cossacks  have 
sold  their  birthright,  they  have  at  least  managed 
to  acquire  a  bountiful  mess  of  pottage. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MOSCOW   IN   DIFFERENT   MOODS 

IT  so  happened  that  I  was  in  Moscow  when  it  went 
mad  with  anti- Germanism.  All  the  Germans  and 
Austrians,  naturalised  or  unnaturalised,  were  cleared 
out.  There  was  wreckage  of  whole  streets  of  shops. 
As  an  upshot  the  chiefs  of  police  were  dismissed, 
because  this  rioting  was  not  checked.  Meanwhile, 
martial  law  was  proclaimed.  To  be  found  in  the 
streets  after  ten  o'clock  at  night  was  to  be  instantly 
arrested. 

Moscow  had  bitterness  in  its  heart  against  the 
German  invasion.  When  the  war  broke  out  all 
German  and  Austrian  residents  were  interned.  But 
this  was  not  enough  for  the  populace.  There  were 
too  many  naturalised  Germans  in  Moscow,  who  were 
suspected  of  also  retaining  their  Teutonic  nationality. 
Some  of  the  greatest  stores  had  names  over  their 
portals  that  were  certainly  not  Russian.  Rising 
public  feeling  compelled  the  authorities  to  apply 
advice  which  amounted  to  compulsion,  that  the 
Germans  had  better  put  a  long  distance  between 
themselves  and  the  Kremlin.  They  went,  but  before 
going  most  of  them,  if  not  all,  transferred  their 
businesses  to  Russians.  This  was  not  enough.  The 
Moscow  idea  was  that  the  Government  should  have 
136 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    137 

closed  and  sealed  all  establishments  which  had  been 
in  the  possession  of  the  enemy. 

There  was  one  of  those  swift  uprisings,  the  origin 
of  which  it  is  difficult  to  locate.  The  students  of 
Moscow  University  have  the  credit  of  beginning  the 
rioting.  I  was  told  that  a  committee  of  them  care- 
fully drew  up  a  list  of  German  and  Austrian  shops. 
Anyway,  when  the  window- smashing  began,  leading 
to  raiding,  the  firing  of  premises  and  the  wholesale 
destruction  of  property,  parties  of  young  fellows 
simultaneously  turned  up  at  the  forsaken  suburban 
residences  of  the  alien  rich  men  and  demolished 
them.  At  the  same  time  about  20,000  working  men 
went  on  strike,  including  those  engaged  at  the 
largest  calico  factory  in  Moscow.  There  were  crowds 
in  the  streets,  probably  a  hundred  thousand  persons, 
and  there  were  fiery  and  patriotic  orations,  much 
waving  of  the  Russian  flag,  constant  singing  of  the 
National  Anthem,  and  immense  cheering. 

Then  "  the  fun  commenced."  For  nearly  two 
days  it  lasted.  The  windows  were  smashed,  the 
places  were  gutted,  millions  of  roubles'  worth  of 
valuable  goods  were  thrown  into  the  streets.  Every- 
body was  free  to  help  himself  or  herself.  Furniture 
was  burnt,  and  there  were  many  attempts  to  give  the 
shops  themselves  to  the  flames.  One  German  was 
caught  on  his  premises  ;  he  was  chased  to  the  river, 
where  he  was  chivvied  as  boys  chivvy  a  rat,  until 
someone  hit  him  over  the  head — and  that  was  the 
end  of  him.  One  of  the  first  places  attacked  was  a 
German  wine  and  spirit  store,  where,  under  the  pro- 


138  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

hibition  law,  everything  was  under  lock  and  key. 
But  lock  and  key  did  not  count  for  much  before  the 
mob  ;  they  were  soon  at  the  bottles,  and  a  drunken 
and  wild  orgy  followed  in  the  consumption  of  £10,000 
worth  of  liquor.  The  casks  in  the  cellars  were  broken, 
and  at  least  twelve  of  the  invaders  were  drowned 
in  the  liquor,  for  it  was  four  feet  deep  in  one  place. 
Many  men  went  raving  mad  with  drunkenness,  and 
bottles  of  champagne  could  be  bought  at  sixpence 
(25  kopecks)  a  bottle. 

All  the  big  piano  and  music  warehouses  had 
belonged  to  Germans.  Crash  they  went,  and  the 
crowd  surged  in.  From  the  first  storey  they  pitched 
out  grand  pianos.  From  one  place  alone  eighteen 
grand  pianos  were  tossed  into  the  streets,  some  of 
them  worth  several  hundreds  of  pounds.  These 
were  broken  up  as  though  hurriedly  wanted  for  fire- 
wood ;  their  legs  were  chopped  off  and  the  wires 
ripped  out.  Violins,  mandolins,  wind  instruments 
were  seized,  and  there  were  farmyard  concerts.  Even 
wounded  soldiers  hobbled  along,  scraping  energetic- 
ally and  most  unmusically  at  fiddles.  The  shop  of 
the  principal  dealer  in  billiard  tables  was  pounded 
to  pieces,  the  cloth  ripped,  the  slates  cracked,  the 
ivory  balls  broken.  The  firm  of  Mendl  had  five 
stores  destroyed  by  the  mob.  All  the  goods,  the  mis- 
cellaneous wares  of  a  Moscow  Whiteley,  were  thrown 
by  the  armful  out  of  the  smashed  windows.  A  held- 
up  tramcar  had  the  roof  piled  with  garments.  Every 
little  German  shop,  tobacconist,  or  barber,  or  baker, 
hundreds  of  them,  suffered  from  the  fury  of  the  people- 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    139 

Hooligans,  as  usual,  were  responsible  for  most  of 
the  damage.  But  the  street  crowds  were  to  a  large 
extent  composed  of  well-dressed  citizens,  including 
ladies,  and  there  were  no  qualms  about  taking  sable 
cloaks,  boots  and  shoes,  garments  of  every  descrip- 
tion. In  most  places  not  an  article,  not  a  whole 
piece  of  furniture,  was  allowed  to  remain.  Every 
German  name  was  obliterated.  In  the  excitement 
the  shops  of  some  Russians  with  Germanic  names 
went  down  before  the  mob,  though  here  and  there, 
on  the  discovery  of  the  mistake,  hostilities  ceased. 
The  shop  of  an  Austrian  with  the  most  valuable 
collection  of  furs  was  stripped,  and  the  ermine  coats, 
muffs,  boas  were  all  appropriated  by  the  crowd.  A 
shop  where  there  had  been  for  sale  a  great  collection 
of  gold  decorated  salon  furniture  went  the  usual 
way.  The  biggest  book  store  in  Moscow  was  torn 
to  pieces.  A  shop  with  the  most  expensive  crystal, 
cut-glass,  and  high-class  crockery — the  firm  has  a 
factory  outside  Moscow  employing  about  three 
thousand  hands — was  reduced  to  atoms.  A  big 
photographic  place  was  wiped  out.  Even  an  old- 
established  firm  settled  in  Moscow  for  a  hundred 
years  did  not  escape.  The  worst  mistake  was  the 
smashing  of  the  premises  of  a  firm  which  had  been 
engaged  in  supplying  the  Russian  army  with  surgical 
appliances,  field  glasses,  and  all  sorts  of  delicate 
instruments,  and  which  was  swiftly  put  out  of 
business. 

For  nearly  two  days  did  the  melee  continue. 
Unofficially,  it  is  computed  that  over  a  hundred 


140  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

and  twenty  shops  were  set  on  fire,  but  the  official 
number  was  thirty-two.  When  night  came  it  looked 
as  though  Moscow  were  going  to  be  razed  to  the 
ground.  Fortunately  there  was  no  wind. 

Probably  imagining  they  were  doing  the  right 
thing  under  the  circumstances,  the  Moscow  police 
did  not  interfere.  But  the  Governor-General  took 
quite  a  different  view.  Instantly  he  grasped  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation  ;  he  put  Moscow  under 
martial  law.  When  the  soldiers  with  loaded 
rifles  appeared  on  the  scene,  the  streets  promptly 
cleared,  but  not  before  the  soldiers  had  fired  into 
the  swaying,  raging  mass.  The  official  number  of 
those  killed  was  nine,  though  everybody  believes 
there  were  many  more. 

Within  a  few  hours  Moscow  was  normal,  except 
for  the  gashed  frontages  of  dozens  of  shops.  So 
effective  was  the  Governor-General's  action  that  the 
prohibition  against  being  in  the  streets  after  ten 
o'clock  was  withdrawn  after  a  couple  of  nights.  But 
this  was  not  the  end  of  affairs.  To  mark  displeasure 
the  heads  of  the  police  departments  were  compelled 
to  leave  Moscow.  To  prevent  attacks  on  aliens  the 
authorities  made  a  thorough  search,  so  they  could 
be  removed.  My  own  hotel  was  completely  searched, 
and  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  eight  blear-eyed 
naturalised  Germans  and  Austrians  were  "  removed." 

Except  for  this  tornado  outburst,  it  cannot  be 
said  there  was  much  on  the  surface  of  things  to  tell 
there  was  a  great  war.  But  just  as  we  know  that 
the  temperament  of  London  is  very  different  from 


MOSCOW  IN   DIFFERENT  MOODS    141 

what  it  was  in  peace  times,  so  I  found  a  great  under- 
current of  feeling  in  Moscow.  Life  proceeds  as  usual. 
Business  is  brisk — except  in  the  German  shops, 
which  have  been  smashed,  and  in  the  drink  shops 
which  have  been  closed — the  streets  are  full  of  people 
on  fine  afternoons,  the  tramcars  are  crowded,  the 
open-air  concerts  are  well  patronised,  and  the  well- 
to-do  hasten  to  their  country  houses  in  the  evening. 

Yet  the  Russians  are  affected  by  the  war.  They 
are  depressed  when  things  go  wrong.  They  blame 
themselves  ;  they  criticise  Ministers  ;  they  cannot 
understand  why  England  does  not  supply  Russia 
with  more  ammunition.  One  morning  I  saw  three 
ordinary  Russian  criminals  being  marched  through 
the  streets  ;  terrible  ruffians  they  looked,  and  they 
were  guarded  by  eight  soldiers,  who  kept  close  to 
them  with  drawn  swords.  The  same  afternoon  I 
saw  fifteen  Austrian  prisoners  being  escorted  by  a 
single  Russian  soldier  through  one  of  the  main 
streets.  He  marched  ahead,  and  they  followed  in 
a  bunch,  a  little  travel-stained,  certainly  not  un- 
happy, and  smiling  upon  the  folks  who  looked  at 
them.  There  was  no  animus  against  the  Austrians. 

Prisoners  of  war  are  constantly  being  marched 
through  Moscow.  Most  of  them  are  on  their  way  to 
Siberia,  but  many  are  drafted  into  agricultural  dis- 
tricts, where  there  is  a  shortage  of  men.  Gangs  of 
prisoners  are  to  be  seen  mending  roads  in  the  suburbs. 
A  train  of  wounded  came  into  one  of  the  stations 
from  the  Polish  front.  I  never  saw  such  a  train  in 
length,  and  I  am  told  such  ambulance  trains  are 


142  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

usual ;  there  were  sixty  wagons.  As  the  ordinary 
passenger  trains  in  Russia  are  so  arranged  that  third 
and  fourth  class  travellers  have  "  sleepers  "  as  well 
as  those  who  can  afford  to  travel  first  and  second 
class,  it  is  not  difficult  to  provide  lying-down  places 
for  the  injured.  But  hundreds  of  ordinary  goods 
wagons  are  requisitioned  for  ambulance  work ; 
mattresses  are  put  in,  and  on  the  huge  sliding  doors 
a  red  cross  is  painted.  No  doubt  Russia  has  splen- 
didly equipped  ambulance  trains,  and  though  I  saw 
lots  of  trains  filled  with  wounded — what  a  tale  the 
long  procession  told  —  I  saw  none  except  those 
made  up  with  ordinary  carriages. 

The  Russian  Ivan  has  not  the  grim  humour  of 
the  English  Tommy  under  tragic  conditions.  He  is 
a  big-hearted  and  rather  soft-hearted  boy.  I  was 
most  interested  in  watching  the  Russian  soldiers 
helping  the  wounded  Austrians.  One  prisoner  was 
limping  and  looked  mournful.  A  Russian  was  giving 
him  a  helping  arm,  and  saying,  "  Cheer  up  ;  you'll 
soon  be  in  love  with  a  pretty  Russian  girl."  The 
sentiment  toward  the  Germans  was  not  friendly. 
And  the  demeanour  of  the  German  prisoners  was  not 
of  a  kind  to  invite  courtesy.  Whilst  the  Austrians 
were  good-natured  and  rather  gave  one  the  idea 
they  regarded  the  business  as  something  of  a  joke, 
the  Germans  were  sulky  and  scornful.  They  refused 
to  accept  their  fate,  and  with  black  hate  on  their 
ugly  faces  piled  insult  on  their  captors.  I  have 
heard  of  officers  spitting  in  the  faces  of  Russian 
doctors  who  desired  to  dress  their  wounds,  and  throw- 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    143 

ing  soup  at  the  nurses  who  had  no  other  mission 
than  to  help  them. 

There  is  something  that  is  very  lovable  about 
the  common  Russian  soldier.  He  is  just  as  close 
to  the  hearts  of  the  people  as  are  our  Tommies  in 
France.  He  is  so  big  and  simple-souled  and  patient, 
and  he  never  "  grouses." 

You  know  what  is  being  done  in  kindliness  in 
England  for  the  lads  at  the  front,  and  what  thought 
there  is  for  the  maimed  when  they  return.  But 
Russia  has  nothing  to  learn  in  tender-heartedness 
from  any  country.  It  is  anything  but  perfect  in 
organisation,  but  in  spontaneity  of  generousness 
it  is  supreme.  Everybody  who  can  do  anything 
is  doing  something.  The  people  are  doing  far  more 
for  the  soldiers  than  is  the  Government,  and  certainly 
many  things  which  are  left  to  the  Government  in 
England  are  left  to  associations  in  Russia.  I  know 
a  Russian  who  had  fifteen  wounded  in  his  house. 
They  were  rough  fellows  from  the  steppes  and  from 
Siberia,  and  had  never  been  to  Moscow  till  they  were 
brought  in  an  ambulance  train. 

We  have  no  town  in  the  British  Empire  which 
appeals  to  us  in  the  same  way  that  Moscow  appeals 
to  the  peasant.  It  is  not  only  the  heart  of  Russia,  but 
it  is  almost  the  soul  of  Russia.  It  is  the  city  of  the 
Kremlin,  the  holy  of  holies,  where  the  Czars  are 
baptised  and  married  and  crowned,  and  where  there 
are  fifteen  hundred  churches  with  golden  and  bright 
blue  and  multi-coloured  domes. 

It  tells  of  the  character  of  the  race  that  the  first 


144  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

thought  of  the  fifteen  men  brought  into  Moscow 
was  that  they  should  see  the  Kremlin  and  pray  in 
the  churches.  It  was  almost  worth  while  being 
wounded  if  that  brought  them  to  Moscow.  Every- 
thing else  counted  for  nothing  ;  when  could  they 
be  taken  to  the  churches  ?  And  of  the  fifteen  men, 
only  one  was  capable  of  walking  slowly.  But  when 
they  were  sufficiently  convalescent  my  friend  got 
motor  cars,  and  had  them  taken  through  the  holy 
gate — where  everybody,  even  the  Czar,  uncovers — 
and  these  bronzed  and  shaggy- bearded  men,  all 
crippled  for  life,  had  the  tears  in  their  eyes  as  they 
looked  on  the  glittering  cupolas  within  the  Kremlin 
walls.  They  had  no  words  to  tell  their  thoughts  ; 
they  only  felt. 

On  crutches  and  with  sticks  they  hobbled  from 
church  to  church,  into  the  incensed  gloom,  and 
sought  the  ikons  and  put  little  candles  before  the 
saints  and  stooped  and  kissed  the  pictures.  There 
was  nothing  incongruous  in  these  stump-fisted, 
tousle-headed,  unkempt  moudjiks,  wearing  the  grey 
coat  of  the  Czar,  prostrating  themselves  in  humble- 
ness in  the  gorgeous  Uspensky  Sobor,  where  the 
ikons  are  decorated  with  jewels  which  would  purchase 
a  province. 

Folk  of  other  faiths  may  point  to  the  super- 
stitions of  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church.  But 
you  do  not  think  of  these  things  when  you  witness 
the  fervour  and  the  devotion  of  these  men  who  have 
travelled  from  the  steppes  to  Moscow  by  way  of  the 
battlefields  over  a  grievous  road. 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    145 

Back  in  the  private  hospital  their  eyes  glowed 
with  joy  that  they  had  been  to  the  Kremlin.  They 
could  not  write,  for  education  had  not  been  for' 
them ;  but  they  pleaded  for  letters  to  be  written. 
The  family  of  my  Russian  friend  got  ink  and  paper 
and  sat  by  the  chairs  of  the  soldiers,  and  from  dicta- 
tion wrote  to  fathers  and  mothers  and  wives,  not 
that  they  were  well,  or  that  they  had  been  through 
stirring  times  in  battle,  but  that  they  were  in  Moscow 
and  had  prayed  in  the  churches  of  the  Kremlin. 
And  they  knew  their  relatives  far  beyond  the  Volga 
and  down  by  the  Don  side  and  over  the  Ural  hills 
would  think  they  had  a  noble  reward. 

Moscow  opinion  is  Russian  opinion,  which  is  not 
the  case  in  regard  to  Petrograd  opinion.  Many  of 
the  most  imposing  shops  in  Moscow  were  German, 
before  the  mob  demolished  them,  and  most  of  the 
goods  on  sale  to-day  are  German.  To  crystallise 
Moscow  opinion  it  is  this  :  "  We  must  never  let  the 
Germans  live  in  such  numbers  in  our  midst.  We 
must  never  let  them  get  hold  of  so  much  of  our  trade 
again.  We  must  find  the  means  to  do  more  for 
ourselves.  We  have  got  to  wake  up.  Oh  1  that 
we  had  some  leaders  in  whom  we  could  have  con- 
fidence, and  who  would  show  us  the  way  to  regenerate 
Russia  !  "  When  I  got  amongst  two  or  three  Russians 
they  invariably  wanted  me  to  tell  them  what  kind 
of  man  Lloyd  George  is.  With  a  little  smile  upon 
the  past  I  was  astonished  at  myself  telling  Russians 
what  a  hustling  fellow  Mr.  Lloyd  George  has  proved 
himself  to  be. 


146  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Undoubtedly  the  war  has  led  to  a  shortage  in  a 
good  many  things  for  which  Russia  was  formerly 
dependent  on  Germany.  As  we  are  all  on  the  look- 
out for  blessings  in  disguise,  it  is  a  fact  that  easy- 
going Russia  has  been  compelled  to  set  to  and  make 
things  for  itself.  Necessity  is  a  useful  spur  to  Russian 
industry.  In  some  lines,  the  cotton  and  woollen 
industries,  Russia,  in  turning  out  ordinary  medium 
wares,  has  little  to  learn  from  England  or  Germany 
— and  I  bear  personal  testimony  that  the  Russian 
army  is  well  clad,  as  well  as  being  excellently  fed. 
Some  other  things  Russia  is  starting  upon  are  not 
so  good  as  were  formerly  imported  ;  but  Russia  is 
developing  new  industries.  In  the  mind  of  the 
Moscow  business  man  that  should  proceed ;  the 
weight  of  talk  amongst  all  classes  is,  that  it  should 
proceed  if  only  as  a  check  upon  German  trading 
domination. 

There  is  about  a  million  and  a  half  of  persons 
in  the  city.  Indeed  there  are  more  people  than  in 
normal  times.  A  great  many  families  from  South- 
West  Russia  and  from  Poland  escaped  from  the 
war  danger  and  went  to  Moscow.  This,  with  the 
extra  spending  abilities  of  the  ordinary  people, 
owing  to  saving  on  the  alcohol  bill,  made  Moscow 
shop  business  better  than  in  peace  times. 

The  manager  of  the  biggest  store  in  Moscow 
told  me  that  his  firm  never  did  so  well.  Knowing 
the  supply  from  Germany  and  Austria  was  cut  off  I 
asked  from  where  he  was  getting  material.  He 
told  me  that  some  was  being  got  from  England, 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    147 

through  the  agency  of  the  parcel  post — literally, 
millions  of  packages,  reduced  to  the  size  and  weight 
of  the  Post  Office  regulations,  have  come  from 
England,  which,  if  sent  by  the  old  method,  would 
have  little  chance  of  arriving  at  all.  Further,  he 
admitted,  when  the  war  broke  out  and  the  trading 
community  was  nervous,  he  sent  representatives 
into  the  provincial  towns  to  buy  from  shop-keepers 
there.  They  were  pleased  to  get  rid  of  their  stuff 
at  fair  prices,  and  the  public  in  Moscow  are  glad 
to  buy  the  goods  at  raised  prices  from  this  firm. 
Some  things  have  doubled  in  price,  especially  on 
the  luxurious  side  of  life,  but,  if  averages  be  struck, 
the  cost  of  living  in  Moscow  has  not  increased  more 
than  15  per  cent,  over  peace  times.  On  all  railway 
journeys  the  fare  is  increased  by  25  per  cent,  as  a 
special  war  tax. 

Anyone  having  a  German  name — and  there  are 
thousands — has  a  millstone  about  his  neck.  The 
Hotel  Berlin  changed  into  the  Hotel  d'Angleterre 
in  a  night.  The  Hotel  Dresden  ceased  to  be  the 
Hotel  Dresden  by  the  simple  expediency  of  censoring 
the  name  of  the  German  town,  but  no  substitute  has 

been  provided.     It  is  the  Hotel  which  is  an 

awkward  direction  to  the  droshky  driver.  The 
ichvorshiks  want  to  charge  more  than  ever  for  a  ride 
in  their  awkward  vehicles  and  behind  their  malodorous 
persons.  The  price  of  oats  has  gone  up.  "  I  cannot 
pay  you  so  much  !  "  exclaimed  a  lady  I  know  to  an 
intending  extortioner,  "  for  I've  lost  my  home  owing 
to  the  War."  "  And  they've  taken  a  horse  of  mine," 


148  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

said  the  driver,  "  so  I  must  have  more  money."  A 
funeral  passed — a  white  funeral,  therefore  an  ex- 
pensive one,  for  all  the  trappings  of  woe  were  in 
white ;  the  horses  were  like  equine  invalids  so 
swathed  were  they  in  white  sheets,  and  the  hired 
men  walking  by  the  heads  of  the  horses  were  in  long 
white  coats  and  white — white,  not  grey — top  hats. 
In  front  of  the  procession  men  were  scattering 
juniper,  the  sign  of  public  sorrow.  "  How  would 
you  like  to  be  rich  ?  "  asked  the  lady.  "  Barina," 
said  the  ichvorshik  crossing  himself,  "I've  got  some- 
thing to  eat  and  a  place  to  sleep,  and  it  would  mean 
more  work  to  look  after  more  money  ;  but  even 
for  such  as  I  they  might  spread  some  juniper.  I'll 
take  you  for  fifty  kopecks  " — which  was  a  third  of 
the  price  he  had  just  asked. 

On  the  open  spaces  within  the  Kremlin  walls, 
recruits  were  daily  drilling.  Conscription  draws 
from  all  classes,  and  the  fresh  drafts  come  in  bunches 
through  the  streets,  but  without  the  sprightly  step 
of  the  lads  in  England.  They  were  marched  and 
wheeled  and  taught  how  to  handle  a  musket,  and 
they  disappeared  singing  hymns  whilst  other  Johnny 
Raws  took  their  places. 

The  police  were  constantly  on  the  watch  for 
spies.  To  speak  German  is  to  be  arrested.  Some- 
times English  is  mistaken  for  German  and  there  is 
trouble.  I  was  conversing  with  an  acquaintance 
in  a  tramcar,  when  a  passenger  jumped  up  and  de- 
nounced us  as  Germans.  My  acquaintance  has  a 
close  acquaintance  with  the  Russian  vernacular,  which 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    149 

is  expressive,  and  he  made  the  accuser  look  foolish 
whilst  providing  entertainment  for  our  other  fellow 
passengers. 

If  you  drew  a  circle  fifty  miles  round  Moscow 
you  would  enclose  the  chief  manufacturing  area 
of  Russia.  Russians  are  proud  of  historical  Moscow, 
with  its  Kremlin  and  its  traditions,  but  they  are 
just  as  proud  of  the  part  the  old  capital  is  playing 
as  a  modern  up-to-date  European  commercial  centre. 
The  wealth  of  Moscow  merchants  is  notorious,  and 
some  American  millionaires  would  be  chagrined  at 
the  manner  they  are  outdone  in  ostentation  by  their 
Russian  brethren.  Also  some  of  the  finest  hospitals, 
art  galleries,  and  works  intended  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  people  owe  their  origin  to  the  generosity 
of  rich  men.  But  through  and  around  this  is  a  real 
civic  spirit,  a  municipal  pride,  a  belief  that  whatever 
Russia  intends  to  do  it  is  for  Moscow  to  lead  the 
way. 

Russians  are  perfectly  aware  that  folk  of  other 
countries  regard  them  as  semi-barbarians.  With  a 
cruel  smile  they  will  sometimes  allude  to  this  in  the 
presence  of  the  foreigner.  They  know  that  in 
national  advancement  they  lag  behind  other  nations, 
and  in  Moscow,  which  is  the  intellectual  home  of 
Russia  as  well  as  its  chief  trading  mart — see  its 
University,  magnificent  opera  house,  its  "  Artistic 
Theatre,"  built  on  a  special  style  and  devoted  to 
realism,  its  picture  galleries,  its  conservatoire  of  music, 
its  museums — there  has  been  a  genuine  and  successful 
desire  to  remove  the  causes  for  pointing  the  finger. 


150  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

Gradually  the  awful  cobbled  streets,  which  shook 
one  to  pieces  when  driving  in  the  particularly  small 
droshkies  peculiar  to  Moscow,  are  giving  place  to 
level  asphalted  thoroughfares.  There  are  many  fine 
motor  cars,  but  though  there  are  taxi-cabs,  the 
number  is  small.  There  is  a  first-rate  municipal 
electric  tramway  service,  which  provides  cheap  fares, 
and  at  the  same  time  earns  considerable  money  for 
the  town.  There  are,  however,  no  motor  omnibuses. 
The  telephone  service  is  efficient ;  no  middle-class 
house  is  without  it.  The  same  can  be  said  in  regard 
to  electric  light.  During  the  last  few  years  all  elec- 
tric and  telephone  wires  have  been  put  underground  ; 
thus  Moscow  is  relieved  from  the  overhead  dis- 
figurements which  are  such  eyesores  in  all  American 
and  many  European  cities.  The  city  has  a  new 
water  supply,  and  there  is  steady  progress  in 
equipping  it  with  modern  drainage.  For  quite  ten 
years  the  erection  of  wooden  houses,  which  used  to 
be  the  custom,  has  been  prohibited.  Most  of  the 
wooden  buildings  have  disappeared,  and  there  has 
arisen  a  crop  of  high-storeyed  structures,  steel-framed, 
big-windowed,  stacks  of  offices,  and  enormous  piles 
of  flats. 

When  I  was  last  in  Moscow,  eight  or  nine  years 
before,  the  city  was  wallowing  in  what  was  then  called 
the  "  New  Art,"  and  business  premises,  as  well  as 
residential  "  palaces,"  presented  weird  fagades,  with 
fantastic  architecture  and  bulging  or  miniature  win- 
dows, and  decorations  which  were  quaint  without 
being  beautiful.  Moscow,  however,  has  grown  out 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    151 

of  that  phase  of  culture.  When  I  inquired  for  some 
of  the  amusing  horrors  which  attracted  me  on  my 
former  visit,  I  learned  that  most  of  them  had  been 
obliterated  and  less  ornate  fronts  substituted.  Many 
of  the  big  shops  in  the  principal  streets  of  Moscow 
are  as  imposing  as  the  new  buildings  to  be  seen  in 
Regent  Street. 

You  can,  therefore,  understand  how  Moscow  prides 
itself  on  being  go-ahead.  It  has  an  enlightened  city 
council.  For  two  and  a  half  years  Moscow  was 
without  a  mayor  because  the  gentleman  the  citizens 
selected  did  not  receive  the  approval  of  the  Govern- 
ment ;  but  the  approval  was  soon  forthcoming  when 
the  war  broke  out,  and  Moscow  was  expected  to 
captain  Russia  in  patriotic  response.  All  public 
works  are  under  the  control  of  the  municipality,  but 
the  chairmen  of  the  various  departments — lighting, 
roads,  tramways,  drainage,  buildings — give  up  their 
ordinary  work  and  devote  themselves  to  the  service 
of  the  town.  Moscow  has  to  contribute  to  the 
upkeep  of  the  police,  but  the  control  is  solely  in  the 
hands  of  Government  nominees. 

There  are  branches  of  Russian  foreign  chambers 
of  commerce,  but  Moscow  has  no  chamber  of  com- 
merce of  its  own.  The  things  that  are  done  by  a 
British  chamber  of  commerce  are  looked  after  by  a 
committee  of  the  bourse,  or  stock  exchange.  But 
there  is  a  powerful  association  of  millowners  which 
keeps  its  members  notified  about  movements  in  the 
world's  trade,  particularly  in  regard  to  cotton.  In 
the  matter  of  labour  disputes  the  employers  meet 


152  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

and  act  in  concert.  There  is  a  bureau  of  information 
where  a  manufacturer  may  learn  about  prospective 
customers  and  be  forewarned  about  those  from  whom 
payment  is  found  difficult.  Since  the  war  has  been  on, 
the  association  has  been  useful  in  providing  informa- 
tion about  routes  of  commerce,  and  one  of  the 
latest  circulars  issued  was  one  of  advice  against 
attempts  being  made  to  get  raw  material  into  Russia 
through  Archangel,  for  the  railway  is  monopolised 
by  the  Government  for  the  carriage  of  war  stores. 

No  trade  unions  are  allowed  in  Russia  ;  but  this 
is  no  bar  to  general  action  on  the  part  of  the  work- 
men when  they  believe  they  have  a  grievance.  A 
good  deal  goes  on  under  the  surface  in  Russia,  and 
when  there  is  discontent  about  wages  in  one  mill, 
although  no  meetings  are  held,  propaganda  proceeds, 
and  suddenly  the  whole  mass  of  workpeople  come 
out  on  strike,  not  only  in  the  mill  affected,  but  the 
men  in  all  similar  mills  come  out.  Then  it  is  a 
case  of  pull-devil  pull-baker  between  the  employers 
and  the  men,  or  there  is  a  conference  between  repre- 
sentatives to  seek  a  basis  of  settlement. 

By  English  standards  Russian  workmen  are  not 
well  paid.  But  that  does  not  mean  that  labour  is 
cheap  in  Russia.  I  have  gone  somewhat  closely  into 
this  question,  and  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  for  the  same  article  it  costs  more  to  have  it 
made  in  Russia  than  in  England.  The  Russian 
workman  does  his  work  well  under  supervision,  but 
he  lacks  personal  ingenuity,  and  he  is  slow.  On  an 
average  it  takes  ten  Russian  workmen  to  do  in  the 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    153 

same  time  and  equally  well  what  six  English  work- 
men will  do.  Thus,  though  the  English  workman 
may  receive  thirty  shillings  a  week  to  the  Russian's 
twenty  shillings,  the  cost  of  Russian  labour  is  dearer 
than  English. 

There  is  a  Workmen's  Compensation  Act  in 
operation.  All  the  big  works  have  to  provide 
hospitals  for  their  employees,  and  in  the  case  of 
small  works  a  proportionate  contribution  must  be 
made  to  a  hospital.  I  doubt  if  there  is  any  country 
in  the  world  better  provided  with  hospitals  than 
Russia.  All  the  big  hospitals  are  free  for  the  working 
classes,  except  that  there  is  a  town  tax  on  everyone 
engaged  in  manual  labour.  This  is  equivalent  to 
2s.  6d.  a  year,  and  for  this  a  workman  and  his  family 
are  entitled  to  hospital  treatment.  The  Russian 
doctors  are  good — there  are  a  great  many  women 
doctors  in  Moscow,  and  in  dental  work  the  ladies 
have  most  of  the  field  to  themselves — but  I  was 
sorry  to  hear  anything  but  kindly  remarks  about 
the  nurses.  The  allegation  was  that  the  patients, 
or  their  friends,  had  to  bribe  in  order  to  secure  proper 
attention.  The  cause  of  this  is  that  the  girls  are 
very  badly  paid. 

This  pernicious  system  in  vogue  in  Russia  of 
paying  public  officials  badly  is  one  of  the  things 
which  reduces  the  best  friends  of  Russia  almost  to 
tears.  There  is  scarcely  an  office  that  is  not  wretch- 
edly paid.  It  is  almost  an  impossibility  for  a  police- 
man to  live  on  his  wages.  To  the  honest  official — 
and  he  is  to  be  found — the  path  is  hard  and  mean. 


154  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

But  the  man  without  scruple — and  he  also  can  be 
found — blackmails  and  is  bribed,  and  grows  pros- 
perous. You  are  told  that  every  official  has  his 
price  ;  that  you  can  get  nothing  done  without  a 
bribe.  So  the  first  move,  if  you  want  anything  done, 
is  to  find  out  whom  you  must  oil.  The  whole  thing 
is  so  customary  that  the  Russians  have  got  used  to 
it.  At  the  same  time,  they  have  contempt  for  the 
official  classes,  who  are  supposed  to  batten  on  the 
ill-gotten  gains.  The  blame  does  not  so  much  lie 
with  the  officials  as  with  the  wretched  plan  of  paying 
bad  salaries.  With  a  wink  over  the  shoulder  you 
are  informed  they  will  find  means  to  improve  their 
income.  Russia  is  going  to  do  many  amazing  things 
towards  her  own  regeneration  after  the  war.  One 
of  the  first  improvements  should  be  to  pay  all  official 
classes  better,  and  remove  the  temptation  to  accept 
bribery  or  levy  blackmail. 

The  co-operative  movement  amongst  small  farmers 
and  shops  for  the  advantage  of  the  working  classes 
is  growing  considerably  in  Russia.  The  head- 
quarters of  the  Union  of  Co-operative  Stores  is  in 
Moscow,  where  purchases  are  made  and  distributed 
throughout  the  country  to  innumerable  branches. 
The  Officers'  Stores  is  a  good  imitation  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  Stores  in  London.  The  firm  of  Muir  and 
Mirrielees,  completely  British,  is  the  finest  depart- 
ment store  in  Russia,  and  all  Russians  go  there, 
as  all  visitors  go  to  the  Kremlin.  English  afternoon 
tea  in  the  restaurant  upstairs  is  very  much  the 
correct  thing,  where  you  are  waited  upon  by  the 


MOSCOW  IN  DIFFERENT  MOODS    155 

most  correct  young  ladies,  with  neat  dresses  and 
soft  hands — so  correct,  indeed,  that  they  are  insulted 
if  offered  a  tip  for  their  courtesy,  and  so  refined  that 
maids  lower  in  the  social  scale  remove  the  dishes 
after  they  have  been  used.  The  refined  damsels 
in  biscuit-and-black-coloured  frocks  receive  and  ful- 
fil your  order ;  those  in  pink  will  "  clear  away  and 
receive  payment." 

Quite  a  number  of  firms,  foreign  in  their  origin, 
are  established  in  Moscow.  There  is  Wogal  and 
Co.,  who  are  bankers  and  sugar  refiners,  and  the 
biggest  tea  importers  and  cement  makers,  and  many 
other  things.  There  is  the  firm  of  Knoop,  the  biggest 
importer  of  cotton  in  Russia,  and  under  its  wing  is 
the  firm  of  Messrs.  Mather  and  Platt,  supplying  many 
of  the  cotton  mills  with  machinery.  The  firm  of 
William  Miller  has  the  biggest  brewery  in  Russia, 
though  in  these  teetotal  days  non-alcoholic  beverages 
is  its  main  concern.  Many  of  the  most  prosperous 
concerns  have  German  names,  though  Russian,  and 
in  these  rough  days  suffer  badly.  The  most  import- 
ant middlemen  are  Jews.  There  are  restrictions 
upon  Jews  living  in  Moscow,  but  a  young  Jew  who 
wants  to  follow  a  career  in  Moscow  attends  one  of 
the  Russian  universities,  gets  his  degree,  enters  the 
ranks  of  professional  men,  and  thus  gains  the  privi- 
lege of  residence  in  Moscow. 

Many  technical  schools  exist  in  Moscow,  and  the 
young  men  are  eager  for  instruction,  though  they 
think  theoretical  knowledge  is  superior  to  practical 
mechanics.  That  explains  how  they  get  knocked 


156  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

over  by  the  young  English  artisan  who  knows  how 
to  do  things  better  than  being  able  to  describe  how 
they  ought  to  be  done,  in  which  the  clever  young 
Russian  is  superb. 

Moscow  merchants  are  open-minded  about  all 
new  ideas  concerning  business  management ;  they 
are  willing  to  learn.  American  typewriters  are  in 
general  use.  Now  and  then  there  is  a  tendency  to 
slackness — it  is  one  of  the  Slav  failings  ;  to  just 
not  do  a  thing  to  completeness,  and  for  the  mind  to 
be  distracted  toward  a  newer  novelty.  No  people 
are  more  free  from  national  conceit  than  the  Russians. 
They  are  willing  to  be  taught  and  would  learn  more 
if  they  would  theorise  less. 

Ten  railway  lines  have  their  termini  in  Moscow, 
and  there  is  a  loop  line  far  beyond  the  city,  so  that 
goods  can  be  switched  round  to  the  big  trunk  lines 
without  coming  into  Moscow — but  commercial  men 
complained  to  me  that  instead  of  saving  time  it 
caused  delay,  was  expensive,  and  altogether  the 
management  needed  overhauling  by  a  practical 
Englishman  or  American. 

But  though  it  is  easy  enough  to  point  to  the 
defects,  the  main  thing  is  to  recognise  the  enormous 
jump  Moscow  has  made  in  commercial  and  industrial 
development  in  putting  itself  into  line  with  the  other 
great  European  cities.  Those  of  us  who  knew 
Moscow  ten  and  fifteen  years  ago  can  honestly 
admit  astonishment  at  the  transformation  which  has 
been  made. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   ENGLISH   IN   MOSCOW   AND   SOME   OTHERS 

THERE  is  a  happy  British  Colony  in  Moscow.  Where- 
ever  in  Russia  there  is  a  manufacturing  concern, 
turning  out  engineering,  cotton,  woollen,  or  other 
goods  requiring  the  use  of  modern  machinery, 
there  you  are  more  likely  than  not  to  find  some 
man  from  England  or  Scotland  in  charge. 

There  are  Russian  managers  and  some  of  them 
are  good.  But  in  practical  knowledge  the  Russian 
is  "  not  in  the  same  street  "  with  the  Briton,  and 
as  conceit  is  not  one  of  the  Muscovite  failings,  the 
fact  is  admitted.  Big  Russian  works,  running  well 
and  prosperously,  have  sometimes  dropped  English 
managers  and  selected  men  of  the  country.  Within 
a  couple  of  years  they  have  been  obliged  to  re-engage 
Englishmen. 

This  is  not  due  to  accident ;  it  is  the  result  of  a 
national  trait.  At  home  we  British  are  in  the  habit 
of  constantly  looking  at  our  industrial  tongue  and 
declaring  things  are  not  well  with  us  internally. 
In  the  old  days,  Germany  sneered  at  us,  the  United 
States  was  pleased  to  consider  us  amongst  the  back 
numbers,  even  the  buoyant  Dominions  thought 
they  could  teach  the  "  old  man  "  how  to  do  things. 
Yet  when  you  find  distant  countries,  from  Brazil 
i57 


160  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

colony.  One  day  I  came  across  a  book  written  in 
1842,  in  which  there  was  complaint  of  the  English,  who 
shared  the  privileges  of  the  natives  without  partaking 
of  their  burdens.  They  lived  secluded  amongst 
themselves,  "  despising  all  other  nations,  and  more 
particularly  their  hosts,  the  Russians,"  and  they 
"  look  down  on  all  men,  boast  of  their  own  indispen- 
sableness  and  their  own  invincible  fleets." 

When  there  were  the  great  engineering  develop- 
ments in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  Russia 
was  slow  to  join  in  the  advantages.  But  as  she  did, 
it  was  generally  Englishmen  who  were  employed. 
The  manufacturing  centre  was  Moscow,  and  here 
there  grew  up  a  colony  numbering  now  about  800,  but 
if  the  manufacturing  places  for  fifty  miles  around  are 
included,  not  far  behind  1,500.  There  is  a  constant 
importation  of  managers  and  skilled  artisans  from 
England.  Some  return  home  on  completing  their 
contract ;  others  settle  and  marry  and  raise  families. 
Also  there  are  a  great  number  of  English  governesses  ; 
there  must  be  several  thousands  of  them  in  Russia. 
But  though  in  cities  like  Petrograd  and  Moscow 
they  have  their  residential  clubs,  most  of  them  are 
hidden  in  the  homes  of  well-to-do  Russian  families. 

In  the  total  of  British  subjects  in  Russia  I  am 
allowing  a  good  margin  in  saying  that  not  more  than 
a  third  of  them  speak  English.  It  is  rare  for  an 
English  woman  to  marry  a  Russian.  It  is  a  matter 
of  common  occurrence  for  an  Englishman  to  marry 
a  Russian  woman.  TJhis  is  quite  natural.  He  is 
removed  from  his  countrymen  ;  he  learns  Russian 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         161 

and  Russians  are  his  friends,  and  the  ladies  he  meets 
are  Russian.  So  he  marries,  with  possibly  his  wife 
speaking  no  English.  The  children  learn  Russian 
as  their  mother  tongue,  and  it  is  a  chance  whether 
they  learn  English.  Anyway,  it  is  fairly  certain 
that  when  the  son  of  that  marriage  marries  a  Russian 
wife  the  children  of  the  alliance  will  know  no  English 
unless  they  learn  it  as  a  foreign  tongue.  There 
are  a  number  of  prominent  Russian  subjects  descen- 
dants of  British  settlers,  such  as  General  Creighton, 
the  Governor  of  Vladimir  province,  who  is  a  member 
of  the  English  Church. 

It  is  understandable,  when  a  family  is  long 
settled  in  Russia  and  all  ties  are  broken  with  England 
and  intermarriage  with  Russians  is  usual,  for  the 
British  nationality  to  be  dropped.  It  is  a  very 
different  matter  when  there  are  thousands  of  people 
three-parts  Russian,  only  speaking  Russian,  who 
know  of  no  British  relatives,  who  belong  to  the 
Russian-Greek  Church,  who  cannot  be  distinguished 
from  Russians  except  by  their  names,  yet  who  have 
British  passports  and  claim  all  the  rights  of  British 
citizenship.  I  know  the  British  authorities  had 
some  hesitation  when  Mr.  Smith,  who  is  a  Russian 
in  everything  but  name,  wanted  a  British  passport. 
The  British  Parliament  settled  the  difficulty  for 
the  future  by  enacting  that  from  January  1st,  1915, 
all  children  of  the  second  generation  born  in  Russia 
shall  not  have  British  nationality.  This  has  caused 
much  heart-burning  amongst  the  British  colonists. 
A  man  born  in  Russia,  whose  father  and  mother 


162  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

were  British,  is  very  proud  of  his  British  nationality. 
He  himself  marries  an  English  girl,  but  the  children 
are  not  recognised  by  England  as  British,  and  Russia 
refuses  to  accept  them  as  Russian.  A  child  born  under 
these  conditions  has  no  status  whatever  until  manhood 
is  reached,  and  then  he  can  comply  with  the  ordinary 
requirements  of  an  alien  seeking  naturalisation. 

In  Petrograd  and  Moscow  are  pleasant  English 
clubs.  Also  there  are  sports  clubs,  and  a  start  has 
even  been  made  with  a  golf  club  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  capital.  There  are  English  churches  and 
endowed  beds  in  hospitals,  well  supported.  St. 
Andrew's  Church  at  Moscow  is  like  a  piece  of  trans- 
planted England.  Also  there  are  excellent  residential 
clubs  for  governesses,  and  that  at  Moscow,  St. 
Andrew's  House,  is  always  full,  providing  brightness 
for  women  into  whose  lives  an  excess  of  sunshine 
does  not  often  come. 

All  sorts  go  to  the  making  of  an  English  colony, 
from  the  ambassador  to  the  freshly  arrived  clerk, 
and  a  spirit  of  comradeship  prevails,  especially 
evident  when  an  unfortunate  fellow-countryman 
needs  a  helping  hand.  Of  course,  there  is  always 
the  transplanted  lady — nobody  in  particular  at  home 
— who  never  forgets  who  she  is,  and  the  respect  due 
to  her  as  the  wife  of  her  husband,  and  who  does 
not  see  why  she  should  be  called  upon  to  be  polite 
to  little  Mrs.  So-and-so — but,  dear  me,  where  is  the 
place  in  this  wide  world  where  there  is  a  British 
colony  that  the  same  little  comedy  is  not  enacted  ? 

With  the  customary  exceptions,  the  Britons  and 


CHURCH    OF   ST.    BASIL,    MOSCOW 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         163 

their  families  resident  in  Russia  have  justified  their 
nationality.  The  Russians  look  up  to  the  English, 
and,  whilst  by  no  means  understanding  them,  accept 
them  as  the  best  that  can  be  produced.  And  it  is  not 
only  the  Englishmen  and  their  wives  in  the  big 
towns  who  have  maintained  the  national  reputation. 
It  is  the  individual  Englishman  and  his  wife  living 
rather  solitary  lives  in  busy  manufacturing  towns, 
distant  from  the  track  of  the  tourist,  and  to  whom 
large  workshops  look  for  guidance.  Parts  of  Russia 
are  very  far  away  from  the  Old  Country,  places 
with  unpronounceable  names,  and  when  the  stray 
Englishman  turns  up — I  am  writing  from  personal 
experience — the  joyous  hospitality  of  the  exile  is 
unbounded.  In  a  land  of  strange  customs  the 
British  do  their  utmost  to  surround  themselves  with 
mementoes  of  home. 

Commercially,  Moscow  is  the  Manchester  of 
Russia.  Indeed,  it  is  much  more,  for  there  are 
few  things  it  does  not  make.  It  is  the  wealthiest 
town  in  the  Czar's  dominions  ;  three  times  as  well 
off  as  the  upstart  capital  of  Petrograd,  and  doesn't 
it  take  care  to  say  so  !  Every  time  there  is  a  collec- 
tion for  a  charitable  purpose  connected  with  the 
war,  Petrograd  leads  the  way,  and  then  it  is  a  point 
of  honour  for  Moscow  to  do  three  times  better. 
Flower  days  and  flag  days  originated  in  Moscow, 
and  the  English  Rose  Day,  I  was  assured,  is  but  a 
copy. 

The  city  has  a  population  of  one  and  a  half 
million,  and  the  big  factories  are  busy  making 


164  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

munitions,  but  not  enough.  The  suburbs  are  a 
labyrinth  of  cotton,  wool,  silk,  and  iron  works. 

Occasionally  one  meets  the  hirsute  moudjik  from 
the  country,  whiskered  and  ungainly,  and  with 
something  of  the  uncouth  fourteenth  century  about 
his  appearance  ;  but  the  town  artisan  is  quite  as 
smart  as  his  English  brother  in  appearance,  though 
a  slow  worker.  The  Moscow  working  man  lives 
well,  and  his  "  missus  "  does  not  dress  badly,  and 
I  did  not  see  any  of  the  dirty  poverty  which  one 
occasionally  encounters  at  home. 

Russia,  as  I  have  mentioned  several  times,  gets 
a  good  deal  of  its  manufactured  articles  from  abroad. 
But  if  all  the  places  had  the  spirit  of  Moscow  it 
would  be  a  bad  look  out  for  the  foreign  importer. 
I  bumped  into  a  society  called  "  For  Russia,"  which 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  Muscovite  Tariff  Reform  League. 
"  Why  should  we  buy  from  the  foreigner  what  we 
ought  to  make  for  ourselves  ? "  The  association 
has  that  question  for  its  foundation.  With  German 
goods  barred — they  are  still  arriving,  but  they  are 
always  called  Swedish — "  For  Russia  "  wants  such 
a  jump  ahead  that  when  peace  time  comes  the 
occupation  of  the  German  "  commercial,"  so  far  as 
Russia  is  concerned,  will  be  gone.  Russia,  however, 
unable  to  satisfy  its  own  requirements,  will  still 
want  goods  from  abroad,  and  where  better  could 
they  be  obtained  than  from  Russia's  gallant  ally, 
England  ?  But  when  the  ambitious  programme  of 
the  "  For  Russia  "  society  blossoms  into  maturity, 
where  will  the  goods  of  brave  England  be  then  ? 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         165 

The  Russian  smiles,  and  as  he  lights  another  cigar- 
ette he  says,  "  Ah,  sir,  why  look  so  far  ahead  ?  " 

Moscow,  however,  is  asking  that  more  skilled 
mechanics  should  come  from  Britain  to  teach  their 
own  folk  how  to  do  things.  It  is  certain  that  the 
demand  for  Moscow  goods — the  cottons  and  the 
woollens  are  sometimes  of  a  print  and  a  design  that 
would  make  a  Lancastrian  or  a  Yorkshireman  have 
the  hiccough,  though  they  are  what  the  peasants 
love — is  more  than  Moscow  can  supply.  As  things 
are,  it  can  turn  out  goods  of  the  value  of  £20,000,000 
a  year  ;  not  the  province,  but  the  city  alone.  Another 
check  is  the  shortage  of  fuel.  Russia  is  badly  off 
for  coalfields,  and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  the 
output  of  Moscow's  mills  is  largely  dependent  on 
the  output  of  coal  in  Old  England.  Let  there  be  a 
coal  strike  in  South  Wales,  and  the  Kirghis  tribe 
on  the  steppes  of  Siberia  has  to  pay  more  for  its 
flame-coloured  shawls. 

Moscow's  textile  mills  do  a  great  trade  in  supply- 
ing cotton  goods  to  the  Czar's  dominions  east  of  the 
Volga  river ;  the  western  parts  of  Russia  favour 
the  products  of  Germany  (or  did)  and,  to  a  lesser 
degree,  those  of  England.  The  boot  industry  has 
long  been  on  the  boom,  and  with  nearly  two  hundred 
million  people  to  be  shod  the  works  are  racing, 
chiefly  with  the  assistance  of  American  shoe-factory 
machinery.  There  is  a  tremendous  development  of 
electrical  power,  and  the  Russians  are  not  yet  clever 
in  making  delicate  instruments.  The  ironworks 
are  at  full  blast  for  girders  ;  heavy  rails  and  other 


166  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

things  are  needed  to  meet  railway  requirements  and 
the  increase  in  the  building  trade.  Before  the  war 
German  imports  were  jumping,  whilst  those  of  Great 
Britain  were  slipping  (£54,000,000  compared  with 
£14,000,000).  There  are  great  immediate  opportu- 
nities for  Gospodin  Ivan  Bull. 

We  all  know  the  tag,  "  you  have  only  to  scratch 
the  Russian  to  reach  the  Tartar."  He  is  the  nicest, 
blandest,  most  generous  fellow  alive  until  he  is 
riled,  and  then — well,  you  had  better  have  an  aero- 
plane handy  to  get  out  of  his  reach.  The  Tartars 
bossed  Russia  for  several  hundred  years  ;  the  Golden 
Horde  came  from  Tartary  and  whacked  subservience 
into  the  dreamy  Slav.  But  time  has  its  revenges. 
The  Slavs,  many  of  them,  are  disgracefully  wealthy 
and  ostentatious,  and  they  would  feed  you  upon 
black  pearls  instead  of  caviare  if  they  thought  you 
could  pleasurably  digest  them. 

And  the  descendants  of  the  Khans,  the  men  who 
subjugated  half  Europe,  are  waiters — yes,  waiters  ! 
They  dress  in  white  and  with  heads  shaven  stand 
by  your  chair  at  the  Hermitage — which  is  a  restaur- 
ant and  not  a  monastic  institution — whilst  you 
make  up  your  mind  how  you  propose  to  pamper 
yourself  with  delicacies.  There  was  a  fat  old  Tartar 
who  brought  me  my  tea  every  afternoon — the  real 
Russian  beverage,  amber  hued,  lemon  tinctured,  and 
served  in  a  tumbler — when  I  sat  in  front  of  a  cafe, 
blinked  in  the  sun,  and  refused  to  buy  a  Moscow 
evening  paper — and  who  could  not  understand  why 
I  would  not  gorge  like  the  Russians  on  cakes. 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         167 

The  grave  and  whiskered  Russian  will  eat  cakes 
with  the  appetite  of  an  English  flapper.  The  Russian 
has  the  sweetest  tooth  in  the  world.  That  is  why 
he  is  never  brought  a  sugar-basin  when  he  orders 
tea  or  coffee,  for  he  would  scoop  up  the  lot — and 
lump  sugar  is  18  kopecks  the  Russian  pound  (12 
ounces),  say  4|d.  The  Russian  is  given  three, 
or  maybe  four,  pieces  of  sugar  on  a  tiny  glass  plate, 
and  they  all  go.  That  I  should  take  one  piece  and 
send  the  others  back  caused  my  fat  friend  from 
Tartary  to  gaze  at  me  like  a  thought-reader. 

Living  is  expensive  in  Moscow  during  these  times 
of  war.  Even  things  grown  in  the  neighbourhood 
are  dear,  because  labour  is  scarce ;  so  many  men 
have  gone  to  the  front.  All  kinds  of  public  works 
are  at  a  standstill.  The  electric  tramway  service 
has  been  reduced  by  half.  The  prices  of  things  in 
Russia  always  were  high,  even  in  peace  time,  and  now 
charges  climb  like  a  thermometer  on  a  broiling  day. 

How  some  labourers  earning  only  20  roubles  a 
month  (say  £2)  are  able  to  exist  is  a  problem.  And 
it  is  the  rarest  thing  to  see  a  wizened,  half-starved 
Russian.  He  and  his  wife  look  well  nurtured,  and 
their  main  fare  is  cabbage  soup  (sometimes  with  a 
scrap  of  cheap  meat  boiled  in  it),  black  bread,  and 
tea.  It  is  the  chorna  kleb  (black  bread)  which  does 
most.  The  outsider  has  got  to  get  used  to  it,  for 
there  is  a  touch  of  sourness  in  it  that  repels  ;  but 
I  personally  liked  it. 

House  rent  is  dear.  Folk  don't  have  separate 
houses,  as  in  England  ;  they  live  in  great  blocks  of 


i68  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

flats ;  tenement  houses  for  the  working  classes.  I 
know  an  artisan  who,  with  his  wife,  has  three 
moderate  rooms  to  live  in,  and  pays  15s.  a  week. 

Folk  in  England  who  get  their  views  of  Russia 
from  novels  and  melodrama  have  got  the  idea  that 
the  Russian  is  cunning  ;  that  diplomatists  do  their 
work  by  stealing  dispatch  boxes,  and  there  is  usually 
a  tall  and  dark  Russian  adventuress,  probably 
called  the  Countess  Olga,  who  smokes  cigarettes  and 
fools  the  handsome  secretary  from  the  British 
Embassy.  We  know — or  at  least  we  knew  before 
the  war  made  us  Allies — that  for  ways  that  are  dark 
the  Russian  diplomatic  service  is  peculiar.  It  is 
only  the  British  that  play  the  straightforward,  above- 
board  game. 

Now  I  do  not  want  to  do  an  injustice  to  the 
Russians,  but  they  are  amongst  the  most  simple- 
minded  people  I  have  ever  come  across.  Only  they 
do  things  in  such  a  zigzag  way,  and  the  art  of  circum- 
locutory delay  is  carried  to  such  perfection  that 
some  people  think  they  are  soaked  in  duplicity, 
whereas  they  simply  do  not  understand  the  straight 
method. 

If  you  want  to  know  who  is  the  deepest  schemer 
in  diplomacy,  consult  a  Russian.  In  every  case  you 
will  be  told  the  Englishman.  We  are  not  in  the 
habit  of  going  into  raptures  over  the  mole-like  skill 
of  our  Ambassadors  and  Ministers.  Sometimes  we 
feel  they  are  easily  hoodwinked  and  checkmated. 
But  abroad,  and  especially  in  Russia,  it  is  known 
that  beneath  that  suave,  frank  manner,  the  let-us- 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         169 

put-our-cards-on-the-table  style,  there  is  devilish 
ingenuity. 

A  Russian,  referring  to  a  late  British  Ambassador 
at  Petrograd,  said,  "  He  had  all  the  wiles  of  a  Machia- 
velli  without  any  of  his  vices."  In  the  great  shuffle 
of  international  cards  it  is  the  Englishman  who 
wins,  and  you  will  not  get  a  Russian  to  believe  this 
is  not  because  he  has  adroitly  concealed  the  winning 
card  up  his  sleeve.  I  think  it  true.  The  Englishman 
cheats  his  diplomatic  competitors  because  he  plays 
the  open  game  when  the  rules  are  that  he  should 
play  on  the  curve,  and  so  his  very  openness  deceives 
them. 

The  quaint  conglomeration  of  Byzantine  and 
Oriental  architecture  which  you  see  within  the  walls 
of  the  Kremlin  makes  Moscow  one  of  the  individual 
cities  of  the  world — it  has  characteristics  which  no 
other  city  can  show.  It  is  going  to  hold  on  to  these, 
for  they  are  her  glory,  and  no  Russian  would  any 
more  think  of  pulling  down  the  Kremlin  than  we 
would  of  destroying  an  old  minster  in  order  to  pro- 
vide for  a  Carnegie  library. 

But  things  that  are  supposed  to  be  the  mark  of 
encroaching  civilisation  are  travelling  right  up  to 
the  walls  of  Muscovy's  old  capital.  Electric  tram- 
cars,  single  deckers,  jangle  in  endless  procession 
along  the  main  streets. 

If  ladies  buy  hatpins,  they  have  to  be  of  merciful 
length,  for  if  any  Moscow  woman  mounts  a  Moscow 
car  with  a  dagger  protruding  from  her  hat — the  sort 
of  thing  which  makes  a  brave  Englishman  blanch — 


170  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

she  is  removed  by  the  conductor  under  strict  police 
orders.  The  telephone  is  everywhere,  and  there  is 
no  "  put  two  pennies  in  the  box,  please."  It  is  a 
very  third-rate  hotel  in  Moscow  or  Petrograd  that 
has  not  a  telephone  in  every  bedroom. 

Each  evening  at  sundown,  when  the  bells  of  the 
gorgeous  churches  are  booming  over  the  city,  every 
little  chapel — and  there  are  hundreds  of  them — is 
crowded  with  standing  worshippers,  who  light  their 
candles  and  put  them  before  the  ikon  of  their 
favourite  saint.  The  mitred  and  heavy-robed  priests 
swing  censers  and  chant  in  old  Slavonic.  The  old 
men  and  old  women  and  young  women  kneel  and 
cross  themselves  and  pray  for  the  lads  that  are  far 
away  fighting  for  Russia. 

Ah,  say  you,  this  is  Moscow  very  little  changed 
from  conditions  in  peace  times.  Yes,  that  is  Moscow. 
There  is  little  on  the  surface  to  show  Russia  is  at 
war — except  the  ghastly  destruction  of  nearly  every 
shop  which  carried  a  German  name  over  the  door. 
Russians  told  me  they  got  the  idea  from  England. 
And  what  England  does  must  be  right. 

But  every  now  and  then  one  had  a  good  laugh — 
and  sometimes  a  frown  followed.  We  have  not 
forgotten  "  how  the  Russians  went  through 
England  "  in  the  first  year  of  the  war.  The  same 
story  with  another  dress  was  told  in  Moscow.  In 
a  Moscow  club,  a  man  addressed  the  small  assembly 
lounging  in  saddlebag  chairs.  "  Have  you  heard 
that  it's  impossible  to  get  along  the  line  to  Smolensk  ?  " 
Most  of  us  had  not  heard  of  it.  One,  however,  had 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW          171 

heard  something  ;  the  railway  was  rather  jammed 
with  troops  and  munitions  going  down  to  the  Polish 
front. 

"  That's  not  it,"  said  the  first  man  confidentially  ; 
"  it's  the  Japanese — yes.  Japanese  soldiers  and 
big  guns  are  being  hurried  down  to  Poland.  I  am 
acquainted  with  a  general,  and  he  should  know. 
During  the  last  three  nights  240,000  Japanese  and 
their  guns  have  passed  through  Moscow." 

"  Ah  yes,  somebody  did  tell  me  something  was 
happening,"  murmured  a  bearded  man,  tapping  the 
cardboard  end  of  his  cigarette  on  the  back  of  his 
hand,  and  then  leaning  forward  for  a  match,  "  but 
it's  well  not  to  believe  what  you  are  told." 

"But  I  know  it's  true,"  insisted  the  first  man; 
"  240,000  of  them,  and  they've  been  brought  across 
Siberia,  and  they've  been  taken  round  Moscow  on 
the  loop-line,  and  in  the  carriages  with  the  blinds 
down.  Of  course  nothing  has  appeared  in  the  news- 
papers about  it ;  censor  wouldn't  allow  it,  I  suppose. 
Why,  if  a  general  doesn't  know  what's  going  on,  who 
should — train  after  train  of  Japs,  one  every  three 
minutes,  and  all  the  blinds  down." 

I  smiled  and  puffed  my  pipe — it  was  the  one 
bit  of  flagrant  Britishism  I  displayed  in  Russia, 
though  the  imported  tobacco  did  cost  me  half  a 
crown  an  ounce — and  recalled  how  in  England, 
nine  months  before,  we  all  knew  the  Russians  had 
been  landed  in  Scotland,  and  how  for  nights  the 
London  and  North  Western,  the  Midland,  and  the 
Great  Northern  lines  were  blocked  with  Cossacks, 


i?2  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

whom  we  had  not  seen  ourselves,  though  we  all  knew 
people  who  had  the  best  authority  for  knowing  it 
was  true.  Besides,  what  did  Russia  want  the  help  of 
the  Japanese  for?  It  was  certainly  not  from  lack 
of  men  that  Russia  suffered  ! 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  that,"  pursued 
our  informant,  "  but  it  is  quite  true  about  these 
Japs — they  are  going  through  by  the  loop-line, 
240,000  of  them,  and  in  carriages  with  the  blinds 
down.  Go  up  to  the  station  and  see  if  you  can 
purchase  a  ticket  to  Smolensk  or  Warsaw  ;  that'll 
prove  it." 

In  a  few  days  all  Moscow  was  talking  about  the 
Japanese  army  corps  that  had  been  taken  through 
in  the  night.  No  one  could  say  why  the  Japanese 
came,  and  no  one  declared  they  had  seen  them,  but 
nearly  everyone  you  met  knew  someone  who  hoisted 
their  eyebrows  and  intimated  they  could  tell  a  tale 
if  it  was  not  that  the  punishment  was  severe  for 
revealing  military  secrets  which  might  reach  the 
German  enemy. 

Russia  is  a  mysterious  land,  but  as  far  as  I  could 
discover  there  was  as  much  truth  about  Japanese 
in  Russia  as  there  was  about  Russians  in  England. 

The  speaking  of  German  is  a  crime,  and  if  you 
are  caught  at  it  you  can  be  arrested  and  imprisoned. 
Every  patriotic  Russian  has  his  ear  on  cock  for  the 
hated  language.  And  it  is  not  unnatural  that  many 
Russians  not  knowing  German  should  mistake 
English  for  the  accursed  tongue — and  that  makes  it 
very  awkward  for  English  folk. 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW         173 

The  chaplain  6f  the  English  church  in  Moscow  was 
in  a  train  with  a  friend  when  two  Russians,  an 
engineer  and  a  lawyer,  accused  them  of  speaking 
German,  and  turned  a  gendarme  on  them.  Denial 
was  met  with  a  contemptuous  glare  ;  the  assertion 
that  they  did  not  know  a  word  of  German  was  proof 
they  must  be  spies.  Of  course  there  had  to  be  a 
protocol — nothing  can  be  done  in  Russia  without 
protocols ;  prolonged  statements  duly  signed — and 
the  two  Russians,  fulfilling  a  national  duty,  signed 
their  story.  But  gradually  it  began  to  dawn  on  them 
that  the  two  foreigners  were  really  Englishmen, 
and  that  in  accusing  them  of  being  Germans,  they 
had  subjected  themselves  to  a  heavy  fine.  So  they 
began  to  retreat.  Ah  no  !  It  was  now  the  turn 
for  the  two  Englishmen  to  be  indignant,  to  insist 
on  having  a  protocol  against  the  two  Russians.  The 
lawyer  tried  to  laugh  the  thing  off.  But  he  was 
not  allowed.  The  whole  party  went  to  the  station- 
master's  office,  and  then,  whilst  the  Russians  were 
beg-pardoning  and  the  lawyer  singing  low  at  the 
prospect  of  being  summoned,  and  all  Moscow  knowing 
he  could  not  tell  the  difference  between  German  and 
English,  the  protocol  was  duly  drawn  up.  The 
Russians  also  had  to  sign  papers  explaining  apolo- 
getically, and  then  the  Englishmen,  honour  satisfied, 
went  off  home. 

I  have  met  an  Englishman  who,  sitting  in  a  cafe, 
was  hit  in  the  face  with  an  umbrella  and  called  "  a 
pig  of  a  German  "  by  a  Russian  woman.  More  than 
one  Englishman  has  been  taken  to  the  police  station 


i?4  RUSSIA   OF    TO-DAY 

and  detained  until  his  identity  has  been  proved. 
English  ladies  have  been  frequently  insulted  in 
shops.  There  were  two  English  ladies  in  a  tramcar, 
when  a  professor  at  the  Moscow  University — all 
officials  in  Russia  wear  the  uniform  of  their  rank — 
told  them  angrily  to  stop  speaking  German.  One 
of  the  ladies  who  can  speak  Russian  fluently,  said 
to  him  in  his  own  language  :  "  You  are  a  professor 
are  you  not  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Then  you  are  the  most 
ignorant  professor  in  Moscow,"  she  exclaimed,  to 
be  heard  by  everybody  in  the  car,  "  for  you  are 
unable  to  tell  the  difference  between  German  and 
English."  The  professor  was  so  discomfited,  and 
everybody  so  laughed  at  him,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  make  a  speedy  departure.  It  is  only  fair  to  state 
that  frequently,  when  English  folk  have  been  insulted, 
Russians  have  turned  on  their  own  countrymen  and 
abused  them  for  being  offensive  to  people  who  were 
their  allies. 

As  Moscow  is  so  fascinating  a  city  I  thought  I 
would  like  to  take  a  few  snapshot  photographs. 
"  Impossible  during  war  time,"  I  was  told.  But 
I  only  wanted  a  few  pictures  of  old  churches  and 
fat  droshky  drivers,  and  the  great  broken  bell,  and, 
maybe,  one  of  the  gates  into  the  Kremlin.  No 
matter ;  an  instant  arrest  if  a  picture  was  taken  of 
a  tramcar,  unless  with  special  police  permission. 
Oh,  that  would  be  easy  enough,  and  I  sent  off  a 
servant  with  my  card  to  the  nearest  police-station. 
But  alas  !  I  would  have  to  make  special  application 
to  the  Gradnachalnik,  the  Chief  of  the  Police,  and 


THE    ENGLISH    IN    MOSCOW          i;5 

my  request  must  be  stamped  (the  stamps  cost  4s.) 
and  then  I  would  get  my  answer.  Everything  was 
done  in  proper  style  ;  but  at  the  end  of  four  days, 
as  there  was  no  answer  I  sent  a  servant  to  the  Chancery 
to  inquire.  This  place  is  open  from  eleven  o'clock 
to  one,  and  the  place  was  crowded  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  people  wanting  permissions.  No 
answer  to  my  application,  for  "  the  police  were 
making  inquiries."  Twice,  three  times,  four,  five,  and 
six  times,  did  the  servant  go,  and  still  the  police 
were  "  making  inquiries."  The  seventh  occasion 
I  went  myself,  and  I  was  there  three-quarters  of  an 
hour  before  eleven  o'clock.  The  room  was  thronged. 
Folk  who  wanted  to  travel  had  to  seek  police  per- 
mission, and  some  of  the  group  had  been  coming 
every  day  for  a  fortnight,  and  could  get  no  answer. 
One  girl  was  in  tears  because  she  was  a  teacher, 
and  wanted  to  return  to  her  parents.  "  Inquiries 
were  being  made."  Police  permission  to  put  an 
advertisement  in  the  paper  advertising  lodgings  had 
to  be  obtained.  One  man  said  he  had  facilitated 
things  for  himself  with  a  few  roubles  to  one  of  the 
officials.  It  was  hinted  to  me  that  if  I  gave  a  ten 
rouble  note  (£l)  I  would  find  my  application  granted. 
I  said  I  was  not  going  to  insult  any  Russian  official 
with  a  bribe  to  do  his  duty — and  was  laughed  at. 
In  my  case  the  answer  Yes  or  No  was  to  be  given 
"  to-morrow." 

The  next  day  the  servant  went — the  eighth  visit — 
and  learned  the  police  were  still  "  making  inquiries." 
Then  it  was  necessary  to  write  a  most  frigidly  polite 


176  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

letter  to  the  Gradnachalnik,  pointing  out  that  I  was 
a  visitor,  my  time  was  short,  and  that  whilst  I 
recognised  his  right  to  refuse  permission  I  would 
be  obliged  by  an  answer.  No  reply.  Then  I  went 
to  his  office.  His  assistant  knew  nothing  about  it. 
He  was  most  courteous,  but  I  must  go  to  the  Chancery 
and  get  a  paper  that  I  had  made  application,  and  this 
must  be  brought  to  him,  and  then  after  proper 
inquiries  had  been  made — oh,  land  of  interminable 
delay  ! — I  would  get  an  answer  ;  most  certainly  it 
would  be  Yes. 

For  the  tenth  time  a  servant  went  to  the  Chancery 
not  to  seek  the  permission,  but  to  get  returned  a 
letter  of  recommendation  from  a  very  high-placed 
Russian  official.  I  insisted  on  having  that  back. 
I  have  an  idea  that  on  looking  up  the  papers  and 
finding  the  recommendation  (the  signature  of  which 
had  not  been  recognised  at  first)  the  authorities 
gave  the  first  real  consideration  to  my  application. 
The  "  recommendation "  was  returned,  there  was 
intimation  that  permission  was  granted  and  I  would 
receive  it  next  morning. 

I  did,  exactly  three  weeks  after  my  first  appli- 
cation. So,  with  the  document  in  one  pocket,  my 
passport  in  the  other,  and  with  a  button  showing  the 
Union  Jack  attached  to  my  jacket — you  cannot  be 
too  careful  in  Moscow — I  could  sally  forth  and  take 
some  pictures  of  old  men  selling  fruit,  of  people 
crossing  the  road,  of  bulbous  and  evil-odoured 
droshky  drivers,  and  maybe  of  a  church  or  two. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A    RUSSIAN    COTTON    MILL 

IN  Central  Russia  is  the  Government  of  Vladimir. 
In  Vladimir  province  is  the  town  of  Orechovo- 
Zouevo,  and  if  you  say  "  Owreck-of-vesuvio  "  quickly 
you  get  so  near  the  correct  pronunciation  that  it 
does  not  matter. 

You  may  or  may  not  find  it  on  the  map ;  but 
it  is  one  of  the  most  instructive  places  I  visited  in 
Russia. 

The  ordinary  idea  of  the  plains  of  Central  Russia 
is  an  expanse  of  desolation  with  poor  moudjiks,  living 
semi-barbarian  lives  in  wretched  hovels  made  of 
unsawn  tree  trunks,  and  scraping  a  melancholy  liveli- 
hood out  of  a  grudging  land. 

Therefore,  picture  a  place  with  big  mills,  Lancashire 
pattern,  and  towering  chimney  stacks  reeking  furi- 
ously. Think  of  being  dumped  down  at  the  railway 
station,  and  as  you  motor  along  just  as  the  work- 
people are  returning  from  breakfast  rubbing  your 
eyes  and  exclaiming  :  "  Bolton,  by  all  that's  wonder- 
ful !  "  For  the  men  and  the  women  are  sauntering 
back  to  the  mills  with  the  waddle  of  real  Lancashire 
folk,  and  they  cast  supercilious  glances  at  a  couple 
of  most  obvious  foreigners  lounging  in  a  swagger 
motor  that  belongs  to  "  the  boss."  The  men  are 
M  177 


i;8  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

intelligent  and  greasy.  The  women  are  dressed  the 
same  as  their  Lancashire  sisters,  even  to  the  shawls 
pinned  over  their  heads.  The  younger  girls  are 
inclined  to  be  frolicsome  as  they  jostle  one  another. 
The  older  women  are  serious.  Leaning  against  the 
walls  near  the  mill  gates  is  the  usual  blast  row. 

The  bell  begins  to  clang,  and  only  slowly  do  the 
people  respond,  but  with  gathering  numbers,  until 
with  the  final  clang  the  last  surge  of  the  mob  is 
through  the  gates,  and  the  street  is  deserted  save  for 
a  couple  of  men  who  are  late,  and  are  shut  out  and  are 
swearing  in  Russian,  which  is  the  most  expressive 
language  in  the  world  to  swear  in. 

Some  of  the  biggest  woollen  and  cotton  mills  in 
the  world  are  in  Russia.  There  is  no  woollen  mill 
in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire  so  stupendous  as 
that  of  Messrs.  Thornton,  a  little  way  out  of  Petro- 
grad.  At  home  we  have  nothing  the  size  of  the 
Danilovsky  cotton  mills.  Then  there  are  the  cotton 
mills  belonging  to  the  Morosoff  family,  the  largest 
being  the  Tverskai  manufactory  at  Tver,  which  is 
on  the  main  line  between  Petrograd  and  Moscow, 
the  second  largest  the  Nikolski  manufactory  at 
Orechovo-Zouevo,  and  the  third  at  Bogorodsk. 

I  visited  the  middling  sized  place,  and  I  ran  into 
a  state  of  things  which  has  not  its  parallel  in  any 
cotton  districts  in  the  world,  and  I  know  those  of 
England,  France,  the  United  States  and  India. 
And  constantly  I  kept  saying  to  my  companions  : 
"  When  I  write  about  this  it  will  be  hard  to  make 
my  own  people  in  England  believe  such  conditions 


A   RUSSIAN   COTTON    MILL          179 

exist  in  Russia."  And  what  applies  to  the  works 
at  Orechovo-Zouevo  extends  to  other  big  places  in 
varying  degree,  with  some  things,  judged  from  the 
British  standpoint,  I  did  not  like  at  all,  and  others 
which  won  my  unstinted  admiration. 

You  will  find  the  romance  of  industry  in  Russia 
as  elsewhere.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
there  was  a  Vladimir  peasant  named  Savva  Morosoff, 
who  learnt  silk  weaving  and  then  started  a  small 
business,  not  only  to  weave  silk,  but  to  turn  out  cotton 
and  woollen  goods. 

His  four  sons  continued  the  business,  and  it  grew 
amazingly.  Then  the  brothers  dissolved  partner- 
ship. Two  of  them  started  mills  in  Vladimir  province, 
and  to-day  a  population  of  over  80,000  inhabitants 
are  directly  or  indirectly  dependent  on  two  firms. 

Another  brother  set  up  works  at  Tver,  and  the 
fourth  at  Bogorodsk.  The  four  firms  of  Morosoff, 
all  having  their  origin  in  the  enterprise  of  a  peasant 
over  a  hundred  years  ago,  now  employ  between  them 
over  50,000  workpeople. 

The  works  I  specially  visited  were  those  of  Vigoul 
Morosoff  and  Sons  (though  I  was  invited  to  the  others) 
chiefly  because  in  the  British  Club  at  Moscow  I 
had  made  the  acquaintance  of  an  Englishman,  Mr. 
James  Charnock,  who  is  a  partner  and  the  managing 
director  of  the  mills. 

The  development  has  been  such,  that  at  Orechovo 
there  are  at  the  present  time  15,000  people  employed, 
and  over  22,000  people  housed  by  the  firm. 

Now  though  Russia  has  big  manufactories,  it  is 


i8o  RUSSIA   OF    TO-DAY 

not  a  manufacturing  country.  There  are  no  towns 
such  as  we  understand  them.  Accordingly,  when 
a  great  mill  is  constructed  and  workpeople  needed, 
housing  accommodation  has  to  be  provided  by  the 
millowners  for  their  employees  and  families  ;  schools 
and  hospitals  have  to  be  erected,  arrangements 
made  for  stores  to  be  run  on  co-operative  lines, 
doctors  employed,  and  means  of  recreation  provided. 

There  is  little  of  the  generation-to-generation 
families  of  textile  workers.  Ninety-five  per  cent, 
of  the  population  of  Russia  are  peasants,  and  nearly 
all  the  adults  have  their  little  bits  of  land  which  they 
cultivate  during  the  months  that  are  free  from  snow. 

It  is  from  this  class  that  the  cotton  operatives 
are  drawn.  It  is  to  be  easily  understood  that  they 
have  nothing  like  the  inherited  knowledge  or  the 
acquired  skill  of  the  Lancashire  people,  who  are 
pushed  into  the  mills  as  half-timers  when  they  are 
still  small ;  whereas  the  law  of  Russia  is  ahead  of  the 
English  law,  for  no  person  under  fifteen  years  is 
permitted  to  work  in  a  factory. 

Men  leave  their  small  holdings  and  come  into 
the  manufacturing  towns,  whilst  their  wives  run  the 
farms.  In  the  proper  seasons  they  drop  the  cotton 
mills  and  return  to  their  villages  for  a  time.  This 
chopping  about  from  loom  to  land  prevents  them 
from  being  either  first-class  textile  hands  or  farmers  ; 
but  it  is  the  only  method  that  is  practicable  in 
Russia. 

Of  course,  there  are  men  without  farms  who  work 
the  year  round  in  the  mills.  Young  women  who  can 


A    RUSSIAN    COTTON    MILL          181 

be  spared  are  sent  from  the  country  into  the  mills. 
Also  employees  bring  their  wives  and  children.  So 
whilst  in  Orechovo  there  are  15,000  workpeople,  there 
are  22,000  to  be  looked  after. 

Each  family  is  given  two  rooms  in  great  blocks 
of  tenement  buildings.  Personally,  I  strongly  dis- 
like the  barrack  system  ;  it  is  too  much  like  an  asylum, 
and  there  is  an  absence  of  the  individuality  of  the 
home.  I  cannot  say  the  places  I  saw  were  savoury, 
for  the  Russian,  from  prince  to  peasant,  has  a  horror 
of  fresh  air,  and  he  refuses  to  open  his  windows.  Still, 
I  would  not  like  to  vote  them  below  the  miles  of  mean 
streets,  where  so  many  of  our  workpeople  have  to 
live  in  England  with  their  wretched  back-to-back 
houses.  The  mill  hands  of  Russia  are  better  built 
and  healthier  looking  than  their  fellows  in  England, 
but  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  live  part  of  the 
year  in  the  villages. 

The  government  in  Russia  is  called  autocratic, 
but  it  is  intended  to  be  paternal.  It  practically  says 
to  the  people  :  "  Now  behave  yourselves,  and  all  will 
be  well."  British  people,  especially  those  who  do 
not  know  the  Russian  people,  find  it  hopeless  to 
endeavour  to  understand  how  that  system  of  rule 
can  satisfy.  At  times,  there  are  explosions ;  but 
for  the  great  mass  of  people  it  does  satisfy.  The 
majority  of  the  Russians  are  quite  unfitted  for  the 
political  freedom  which  we  have  in  England,  though 
I  quite  recognise  the  application  of  the  axiom:  you 
can  never  learn  to  swim  if  you  are  prohibited  from 
entering  the  water. 


182  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

So  the  scheme  of  having  the  workpeople  living  in  a 
sort  of  barrack  yard,  with  everything  found  by  the 
employers  except  food  and  clothing,  and  these  to  be 
obtained  at  the  stores  run  by  a  committee,  struck 
me  as  objectionable.  It  seems  to  place  the  workers 
too  much  under  the  thumb  of  the  employers.  Such 
a  plan  would  never  do  in  England.  But  I  know 
Russia  sufficiently  well  to  know  how  circumstances 
alter  cases,  and  to  avoid  the  common  mistake  that 
what  suits  one  country  ought  to  suit  another. 

If  there  were  the  same  open  market  in  Russia  as 
in  England,  there  would  be  no  housing  accommodation 
for  the  workers  except  hovels  erected  by  speculative 
rack-renters,  and  the  employees  would  be  the  victims 
of  a  ring  of  storekeepers.  The  small  shopkeeper  has 
not  a  chance  against  the  prices  of  the  Orechovo 
co-operative  stores. 

Education  is  backward  in  Russia,  but  the  firm 
provides  excellent  schooling.  Instead  of  being  de- 
pendent on  casual  doctors,  there  is  a  staff  of  most 
capable  medical  men.  On  the  social  side,  things  are 
done  which  would  astonish  Port  Sunlight  and  Bourn- 
ville,  and  other  places  which  are  supposed  to  be 
models  of  well-being.  The  point  that  I  am  making 
is  that  the  whole  thing  is  paternal.  And  although 
on  principle  I  object  to  the  paternal  control  of  grown 
men,  I  appreciate  its  advantages  for  present  day 
Russians,  who  are  kindly  and  good  workers,  but  not 
grown  men  in  the  broad  meaning  of  the  phrase. 

The  Vigoul  Morosoff  firm  are  manufacturers  of 
finished  cotton  goods,  spinning  the  yarn,  weaving  the 


A    RUSSIAN   COTTON    MILL          183 

cloth,  bleaching,  dyeing,  mercerising  and  printing 
it.  The  fuel  for  the  mills  is  peat  obtained  from  the 
firm's  own  fields  several  miles  away,  covering  an 
enormous  area  and  conveyed  on  a  special  light  rail- 
road. The  mills  contain  220,000  spindles  and  a  pro- 
portionate number  of  looms,  while  large  quantities 
of  grey  goods  are  brought  from  outside  manufacturers 
for  finishing  purposes. 

There  is  machinery  for  the  making  of  velvets, 
muslins,  imitation  silks,  corduroys  and  moleskins, 
cretonnes,  shirtings,  sewing  cottons,  hosiery  and 
fancy  yarns.  I  noticed  that  much  of  the  machinery 
came  from  Hetheringtons  of  Manchester.  Indeed, 
all  the  manufacturing  machinery  is  English.  All  the 
driving  power  is  provided  by  electrical  appliances, 
and  these  are  German.  With  an  English  manager 
ventilation  is  attended  to,  and  as  there  is  no  steam 
power  and  special  fans,  I  could  not  help  remarking 
how  pleasant  was  the  atmosphere  (it  was  a  torrid, 
sweltering  day)  as  I  went  through  the  screeching 
spinning  halls. 

In  ability  the  Russian  workers  are  a  long  way 
behind  Englishmen.  It  takes  ten  Russian  operatives 
to  do  what  six  English  operatives  can  do.  They 
are  good  workmen,  but  there  is  a  failure  amongst 
the  "  non-coms  "  of  industry.  A  Russian  may  get 
ahead  of  his  fellows  in  ability  ;  but  in  control,  in  being 
the  foreman  of  a  gang,  it  is  the  most  unusual  thing 
for  him  to  gain  authority.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  English  foremen  are  so  often  introduced. 

Now  in  regard  to  the  side  which  impressed  me 


i«4  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

most.  The  firm  has  two  fine  hospitals,  employing 
five  medical  men,  two  lady  doctors  (women  doctors 
are  quite  usual  in  Russia)  and  over  twenty  trained 
nurses.  Medical  attendance  and  medicine  are  free. 
There  are  two  schools  with  over  forty  teachers, 
where  more  than  2,000  children  of  the  work- 
people are  educated  free.  The  curriculum  is  the 
ordinary  second-class  Government  elementary  course, 
corresponding  to  the  English  sixth-standard  public 
elementary  school.  At  fifteen  years  the  children 
can  go  into  the  mills  ;  those  who  have  special  aptitudes 
are  given  special  work,  and  promising  pupils  are 
helped  to  higher  educational  establishments  and 
the  universities.  Many  of  the  educational  staff 
are  old  pupils,  children  of  the  workpeople.  It 
struck  me  that  the  education  is  more  practical 
than  in  England  ;  all  the  classes  receive  instruction 
backwards  from  the  finished  article  to  the  first 
ingredients.  For  instance,  all  the  successive  stages 
in  the  making  of  a  hat  are  explained  in  detail. 

The  population  of  22,000  on  the  firm's  property 
have  lodging,  lighting  and  heating  provided  free, 
whilst  the  workpeople  who  live  in  their  own  villages, 
four,  five,  or  six  versts  away,  and  cycle  to  and  fro, 
get  a  monthly  sum  in  lieu  of  lodging. 

As  many  of  the  workers  are  women  and  married, 
there  is  a  big,  cheery  creche  where  the  children  are 
looked  after  by  trained  nurses — a  much  more  blessed 
plan  than  the  system  in  some  parts  of  Lancashire. 

Women  are  not  allowed  to  work  two  weeks 
before  and  five  weeks  after  childbirth.  During  the 


A    RUSSIAN    COTTON   MILL          185 

seven  weeks'  absence,  or  longer  if  they  are  not  strong 
enough  to  resume  work,  they  receive  two-thirds  of 
full-time  wages.  This  notwithstanding  that  they 
receive  food  when  in  the  lying-in  ward  of  the  hos- 
pital, and  there  are  no  doctor's  fees  for  confine- 
ment or  nursing. 

It  is  an  interesting  point  that  the  birth-rate  per 
10,000  in  the  Vladimir  Government  is  just  a  fraction 
below  double  what  it  is  in  Lancashire.  There  are 
almshouses  for  old  workpeople,  or  if  they  go  back 
to  their  villages  they  are  pensioned. 

All  the  workpeople  are  compulsorily  insured. 
In  case  of  illness  half  wages  are  paid.  In  case  of 
partial  or  total  disablement  a  valuation  is  paid 
after  assessment  by  a  committee  consisting  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  firm  and  employees,  and  presided 
over  by  the  local  government  factory  inspector. 

Consider  the  social  side.  Mr.  Charnock  took  me 
into  the  mill  park,  extensive,  wooded,  though  the 
Russian  climate  does  not  allow  for  the  beautiful 
gardening  we  have  in  England. 

There  are  all  the  facilities  for  picnicking.  There 
are  special  enclosures  for  the  children.  There  is 
a  closed  theatre  which  holds  1,500  people,  and  the 
firm  arranges  for  performances  by  travelling  com- 
panies to  present  good  drama. 

Well-known  public  men  are  invited  to  give 
lantern  and  other  lectures.  There  is  also  a  summer 
theatre  with  an  open-air  stage,  so  Orechovo-Zouevo 
and  his  wife  may  sit  and  enjoy  themselves  on 
bright  evenings  and  witness  vaudeville  performances. 


i86  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

There  is  a  brass  band,  two  string  bands,  four  choirs, 
and  several  amateur  dramatic  societies.  Russians 
love  the  dance,  and  there  is  a  big  dancing  hall. 
There  are  athletic  clubs.  The  pavilion  attached  to  the 
athletic  grounds  was  one  of  the  best  I  have  seen  any- 
where :  roomy,  with  billiard  tables,  reading-rooms, 
refreshment  rooms  (teetotal),  well-arranged  dressing- 
rooms,  and  a  broad  balcony  where  members  of  the 
Pavilion  Club  can  recline  in  big  chairs  on  hot  evenings. 

The  football  field  is  quite  as  good  as  any  to  be 
found  in  England,  but  I  forget  the  special  triumphs 
the  Orechovo  Club  has  achieved.  Mr.  Charnock, 
like  other  Englishmen  in  Russia,  has  done  much  to 
stimulate  a  love  of  football  amongst  young  Russians, 
and  the  game  has  caught  on,  though  I  believe  the 
young  Russian  has  still  a  good  deal  to  learn  about 
being  "  a  good  sportsman."  Mr.  Charnock  whis- 
pered in  my  ear  that  football  had  done  wonders. 
In  former  days  the  young  fellows  lounging  round 
took  to  talking  the  politics  of  discontent  against 
the  "  powers  that  be."  He  turned  them  on  to 
football ;  they  became  as  obsessed  as  Englishmen, 
and  forgot  all  about  pseudo-revolution.  If  the 
Russian  Government  wants  to  prevent  young  Rus- 
sians from  being  moody,  and  to  shake  up  their 
livers  so  that  they  don't  dwell  too  much  on  re- 
generating politics,  football  clubs  should  be  started 
in  every  industrial  centre. 

The  firm  sees  to  the  supply  of  food  in  the  stores, 
but  the  prices  are  fixed  by  the  factory  inspector, 
and  this  tends  to  restrain  the  profits  of  the  local 


A    RUSSIAN    COTTON    MILL          187 

shopkeepers.  The  co-operative  stores  run  by  com- 
mittees of  the  workpeople  pay  on  the  average  7 
per  cent,  on  the  purchases  and  sales  and  a  dividend 
of  6  per  cent,  on  the  share  capital. 

Two  shifts  are  worked  at  the  mill  a  day,  usually 
from  4  a.m.  to  10  p.m.,  though  on  days  before  and 
after  the  holidays  the  hours  are  reduced. 

The  average  number  of  working  days  in  a  year 
is  278,  and  the  number  of  hours  worked  yearly 
is  2,250,  thus  giving  an  average  working  day  of 
a  little  over  eight  hours,  as  compared  with  a  working 
year  of  302  days,  or  2,825  hours,  in  England,  say 
nine  and  a  half  hours  daily.  The  engagement  is 
not  on  a  week's  notice,  but  on  a  monthly  contract, 
and  a  workman  cannot  be  discharged  within  that 
period  unless  some  act  of  his  has  endangered  the  safety 
of  the  works,  or  he  has  been  absent  without  reason- 
able excuse  for  more  than  three  days.  Drunkenness 
used  to  be  very  frequent,  but  since  the  authorities 
have  closed  the  spirit  stores  it  has  entirely  disappeared. 

Between  85  and  90  per  cent,  of  the  adult  male 
workers  own  land  and  cottages  in  the  village  or 
commune  to  which  they  are  attached,  and  to  which 
they  frequently  return  ;  88  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number  of  workpeople  have  savings  in  the  Govern- 
ment Post  Office  Bank,  and,  roughly  speaking,  the 
average  deposits  amount  to  £45. 

Early  marriage  is  the  rule.  Then  the  young 
husbands  are  called  up  for  military  service,  and  I 
was  told  that  not  all  the  young  wives  remaining 
at  work  in  the  mills  are  constant. 


i88  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Comparing  the  conditions  of  labour  with  those 
in  England,  these  great  works  at  Orechovo  have 
(roughly)  12  per  cent,  less  working  hours  daily, 
8  per  cent,  less  working  days  in  the  year,  and  20 
per  cent,  less  working  hours  in  the  year.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  wages  are  40  per  cent,  lower  than 
in  England.  But  as  it  requires  40  per  cent,  more 
labour  to  produce  the  same  result,  the  actual  cost 
of  labour  as  represented  by  the  result  is  very  much 
the  same  in  both  countries. 

As  I  expect  this  chapter  will  be  read  by  the  tex- 
tile workers  in  England — naturally  interested  in 
labour  conditions  in  the  country  of  our  Russian 
ally — I  make  no  apology  for  giving  precise  details. 
Take  the  wages  for  an  eight  and  a  half  hours'  day. 
Women  :  In  card  room,  2s.  ;  spinning-room,  2s.  ; 
doubling  room,  2s.  ;  weaving  (three  looms),  2s.  6d.  ; 
dye  works,  Is.  9d.  Men  :  spinners,  3s.  6d.  ;  piecers, 
2s.  6d.  ;  weavers,  2s.  6d.  ;  mechanics,  5s.  Juveniles 
from  15  to  18  years  get  from  Is.  to  Is.  6d.  a  day. 
These  are  small  wages  ;  but  in  addition  the  work- 
people get  housing,  lighting,  heating,  baths,  sick 
advances,  school,  and  hospital  attendance. 

The  cost  of  living  is  not  great,  except  in  the 
matter  of  tea  (Chinese),  for  which  3s.  9d.  per  pound 
is  paid.  Black  rye  bread,  which  I  have  some  recol- 
lection of  hearing  denounced  in  England — which  I 
had  with  my  dinner  this  evening,  in  the  middle  of 
writing  this  chapter  in  the  country  house  of  a 
Russian  friend  eight  miles  outside  of  Moscow,  where 
I  spent  a  week-end — costs  fd.  per  English  pound. 


A   RUSSIAN   COTTON    MILL          189 

White  bread  is  2d.  per  pound,  beef  6d.  and  5d.  per 
pound,  and  pork  4d.  per  pound. 

Clothing  is  very  expensive.  An  artisan's  suit 
cannot  be  bought  for  less  than  £2  10s.  ;  boots  are 
at  least  12s.  a  pair  ;  and  a  warm  winter  overcoat 
costs  £4.  Women's  clothing  is  equally  dear. 

A  far  greater  number  of  married  women  work  in 
the  Russian  mills  than  in  England.  This  is  due  to 
early  marriage,  the  departure  of  the  husband  for 
military  service  leaving  the  wife  unprovided  for,  and 
to  the  barrack  system,  which  is  a  present  neces- 
sity, but  which  nobody  likes,  and  to  the  low  stan- 
dard of  men's  wages,  which  is  the  consequence  of 
their  inability  to  do  not  much  more  than  half  the 
work  an  English  operative  can  do.  A  spare  number 
of  women  workers  have  to  be  kept  because  of  the 
absence  of  women  increasing  the  birth-rate.  Owing 
to  the  excellent  creche  arrangements  all  the  children 
are  breast-fed. 

Do  not  imagine  these  Russian  mill  hands  are 
dressed  after  the  manner  of  Russians  as  depicted 
in  illustrated  journals  by  imaginative  artists.  They 
dress  very  much  the  same  as  English  workpeople, 
except  that  many  men  wear  top  boots,  have  a 
peaked  cap,  and  a  high-buttoned  coloured  shirt. 
The  mill  lasses  don't  mind  what  they  wear  in  the 
mill ;  but  on  public  holidays — oh,  recollections  of 
Blackpool ! — the  Russian  girl  is  up-to-date,  and 
sniffs  at  the  national  costume,  and  must  have  some- 
thing which  she  believes  is  a  Paris  model.  See 
a  throng  of  these  girls  on  a  railway  platform  on  a 


igo  RUSSIA  OF   TO-DAY 

Sunday  evening — the  railway  platform  is  the  chief 
place  of  promenade  in  Russia  on  a  Sunday  even- 
ing as  the  High  Street  is  in  most  English  towns — 
and  you  have  to  think  twice  before  you  remember 
you  are  not  in  Lancashire,  but  in  Vladimir  in  Central 
Russia. 

What  I  have  described  has  its  counterparts, 
with  improvements  no  doubt,  in  other  districts  of 
Russia.  But  nowhere  outside  Russia  is  there  such 
paternal  control  by  a  great  firm  over  22,000  souls. 
The  plan  has  its  serious  objections,  but  it  has  its 
good  features. 

The  thing  that  is  instructive  is  not  so  much  that 
there  should  be  such  things,  but  that  they  should 
exist  in  Russia,  which  you  see  has  another  side  of 
life  to  show  besides  that  depicted  in  sensational 
novels. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
CO-OPERATION  AND  CO-PARTNERSHIP 

WHEN  I  was  in  Siberia  fourteen  years  ago  the  busi- 
ness incompetence  of  the  farmer  was  saddening. 
Here  was  the  twin-country  of  Canada,  just  revealing 
its  enormous  agricultural  possibilities,  and  the 
Russian  apparently  incapable  of  seizing  its  advan- 
tages. Land  was  to  be  got  for  the  asking,  and  a 
much-abused  Government  was  willing  to  assist  the 
peasantry  to  obtain  modern  machinery  on  the 
instalment  plan — but  it  all  seemed  hopeless. 

I  remember  at  Omsk — then  beginning  its  career 
as  the  centre  of  the  Siberian  butter  industry — find- 
ing that  every  one  of  the  big  firms  were  either 
Danish  or  Jewish.  Even  in  the  "  black  earth " 
regions  of  Southern  Russia,  in  rich  Bessarabia, 
where  the  land  was  so  easily  fruitful  in  wheat,  the 
villages  were  unkempt  and  neglected  in  contrast 
to  the  neatness  to  be  found  in  the  German  settle- 
ments. The  Russians  were  disinclined  to  ranch 
life,  such  as  we  know  it  in  America  ;  they  lived  in 
villages,  rather  carelessly  tilled  the  ground  in  their 
district,  and  left  the  rest  to  waste. 

This  was  partly  due  to  the  village  communal 
system,  happy  as  an  ideal,  but  quite  useless  to 
secure  the  individual  giving  his  full  energies  to  the 
191 


192  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

cultivation  of  the  farm.  Land  laws  during  recent 
years,  however,  have  done  much  to  improve  this,  so 
that  there  is  not  a  peasant  who  cannot  have  his 
bit  of  land — it  may  be  limited  to  twelve  or  twenty 
acres — which  he  can  call  his  very  own,  and  the 
produce  of  which  is  for  the  benefit  of  his  family. 

Things  are  far  from  being  what  they  ought  to 
be.  With  the  warmest  affection  for  the  simple 
qualities  of  the  moudjik,  I  must  say  he  is  still  one 
of  the  worst  farmers  in  the  world.  Ignorance  is 
the  cause  of  much  of  this,  but  there  is  also  an  inertness, 
a  slackness,  which  can  only  be  eradicated  through 
the  agency  of  example  and  ambition.  Amiably 
improvident,  the  small  landowner  has  long  been 
the  prey  of  the  Jewish  wheat  speculator.  The 
representatives  of  this  gentleman  travel  through  the 
country  and  find  little  difficulty  in  inducing  the  needy 
and  hard-pressed  farmer  to  dispose  of  next  autumn's 
wheat  crop  at  a  cheap  rate  in  return  for  immediate 
money. 

But  changes  are  at  work,  and  improvements  have 
been  made  which,  without  being  striking  in  them- 
selves, are  remarkable  when  present-day  conditions 
are  compared  with  those  which  existed  fifteen  years 
ago.  Agricultural  co-operative  societies,  together 
with  the  assistance  of  rural  banks,  are  gradually 
working  for  a  better  state  of  things.  The  co-opera- 
tive movement  amongst  farmers  has  unquestionably 
"caught  on."  All  over  the  Empire  these  societies 
have  been  established,  and  the  farmer,  instead  of 
being  compelled  to  sell  his  goods  to  dealers,  who 


GO-OPERATION  193 

have  an  arrangement  amongst  themselves,  has  his 
produce  handled  by  a  society  which,  acting  in  con- 
junction with  neighbouring  societies,  can  secure  the 
legitimate  market  value  and  not  be  dependent  on 
the  manoeuvres  of  local  speculators.  In  no  phase 
of  agriculture  is  this  more  striking  than  in  dairying. 
In  Siberia  particularly,  and  in  association  with  the 
butter  industry,  foreign  firms  have  been  obliterated 
and  the  dealer  who  was  eager  to  squeeze  the  peasant 
has  little  chance.  For  now  the  farmer  sends  his 
butter  and  his  eggs  to  the  co-operative  society, 
which  knows  what  is  the  price  of  Siberian  butter  in 
London — it  is  invariably  sold  to  Londoners  as 
Danish — and  so  he  can  secure  a  fair  return. 

Though  generally  backward,  it  must  be  said 
that  the  Jlussian  always  has  an  open  mind  for  new 
ideas.  He  is  full  of  enthusiasm  for  co-operation. 
In  the  manufacturing  areas,  particularly  around 
Moscow,  co-operative  stores  have  been  established, 
to  the  dismay  and  frequent  ruin  of  the  private  trader. 
The  price  of  food  has  much  increased  in  war  times  ; 
but  the  co-operative  societies  have  had  a  steadying 
influence,  and  in  industrial  towns  there  has  been 
frequent  wreckage  of  the  shops  of  private  traders 
because  the  prices  were  much  higher  than  at  the 
co-operative  stores  in  adjoining  towns — not  always 
due  to  grasping  on  the  part  of  the  small  trader, 
who  is  frequently  the  victim  of  the  wholesale  houses 
— for  high  prices  in  Russia  are  quite  as  much  due 
to  the  holding  up  of  supplies  as  to  shortage — but 
because  by  concerted  action  and  by  having  a  wider 


194  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

market  to  draw  upon  the  co-operative  societies  can 
exercise  pressure. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  something  like 
12,000  co-operative  societies  in  Russia,  and  their 
popularity  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  within 
the  last  few  years  the  number  has  increased  by  25 
per  cent,  over  each  preceding  year.  The  central 
body,  the  Moscow  Union  of  Co-operative  Societies, 
maintains  a  depot  for  wholesale  goods,  and  from 
this  local  stores  draw  their  supplies.  Credit  is  easier 
than  with  independent  wholesale  houses,  and  as 
so  many  things  in  Russia  have  to  be  obtained  from 
abroad,  requirements  are  combined  and  goods  are 
purchased  in  bulk. 

The  Union  is  now  developing  a  scheme  for  in- 
stituting its  own  workshops.  There  is  a  special 
bureau,  not  only  for  drawing  up  reports  on  trade, 
but  for  preparing  literature  to  advance  the  principles 
of  co-operation.  A  pension  fund  has  been  established 
for  the  employees  of  societies,  and  public  recognition 
of  co-operation  is  given  by  the  Union  being  repre- 
sented on  the  Government  committee  for  village 
savings  banks  and  industrial  societies.  So  strong 
is  the  Union  becoming,  that  it  is  beginning  to  exercise 
influence  in  politics.  It  keeps  in  touch  with  members 
of  the  Duma,  and  at  the  present  time  is  trying  to 
form  a  special  group  of  members  of  the  Duma  to 
watch  the  interests  of  the  co-operative  movement. 

When  it  is  known  that  a  town,  hitherto  un- 
provided for,  is  showing  an  inclination  to  have  a 
co-operative  store,  an  instructor  is  sent  from  the 


GO-OPERATION  ig5 

head  office  to  assist  in  establishing  a  branch,  to 
explain  how  purchases  should  be  planned,  and  how 
there  should  be  co-operation  with  other  societies 
in  the  same  district.  There  are  constant  exhibitions — 
movable  exhibitions  passed  on  from  town  to  town — 
and  lecturers,  armed  with  lantern  slides,  travel  around 
giving  instructive  addresses.  A  co-operative  school, 
practical  as  well  as  theoretical,  has  been  started  in 
conjunction  with  the  People's  University  (usually 
known  as  Shaniasky's  University).  There  is  a 
statistical  bureau,  and  the  Union  has  taken  up  the 
publication  of  literature  to  assist  in  the  social  work 
of  the  Zemstvos. 

All  this  is  the  outcome  of  a  few  years  of  work. 
As  I  have  indicated,  the  Russian  is  always  willing  to 
consider  new  ideas.  He  is  more  inclined  than  the 
Briton  to  devote  time  in  the  development  of  a  theory 
instead  of  swiftly  getting  down  to  practice.  The 
theories  concerning  co-partnership  and  profit-sharing 
as  a  means  of  avoiding  antagonism  between  capital 
and  labour,  are  quite  as  far  advanced  as  they  are  in 
England,  and  I  would  be  in  no  way  surprised  if  the 
principles  of  co-partnership  were  put  into  operation 
on  an  extensive  scale  in  Russia. 

For  be  it  remembered,  that  nowhere  in  the  world 
is  the  relationship  between  employer  and  employed 
so  democratic  as  it  is  in  Russia.  Notwithstanding 
the  prohibition  against  trade  unions — though  to  the 
lay  mind  the  co-operative  movement,  blessed  by  the 
Government,  is  first  cousin  to  a  trade  union — and  the 
fierce  industrial  wars  occasionally  waged,  the  personal 


196  RUSSIA   OF  TO-DAY 

— I  had  almost  written  friendship — the  personal 
freedom  in  talk  between  masters  and  men  is  more 
frank  and  generous  than  in  Britain,  America,  or  in 
any  of  the  industrial  nations. 

Like  most  folk  who  know  Russia,  I  have  often 
found  myself  casually  pleased  with  the  quaint 
colouring  in  the  clothing  of  the  peasant  women,  the 
woodwork  ornaments  which  have  a  blend  of  By- 
zantine ornateness  and  northern  simplicity,  and 
sometimes  I  have  been  amused  at  the  ingenuity  of 
Russian  toys.  But  I  am  afraid  I  thought  no  more 
of  the  people  who  make  these  things  than  I  do  about 
the  individuals  who  make  the  lead  pencils  with 
which  I  write.  But,  spending  a  holiday  at  the 
datcha  of  a  friend — a  log-built  country  house  in 
the  woods  within  easy  reach  of  Moscow — I  paid  a 
compliment  to  my  hostess  by  remarking  how  all 
the  furniture,  the  decorations,  the  curiously-woven 
cloths  on  the  table,  seemed  to  be  in  happy  keeping 
with  the  Russian  house.  "  Yes,"  madame  replied, 
"  and  everything  has  been  made  by  the  peasants 
— by  the  koustari."  It  was  that  remark  which 
put  me  on  the  trail  of  one  of  the  most  charming 
features  of  Russian  life — the  peasant  industries. 

Most  of  the  country  lies  under  snow  during  long 
months,  and  tilling  the  land  is  out  of  the  question. 
Villages  are  untold  distances  from  each  other,  and 
as  there  is  little  education,  and  the  big  landed  pro- 
prietors do  not  take  the  same  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  the  countryside  as  they  do,  for  instance,  in  England, 
one  can  imagine  the  kind  of  sluggish  existence  there 


CO-OPERATION  197 

must  be  during  the  dark  winter.  For  reasons 
difficult  to  trace  back  to  their  origin,  certain  districts 
have  developed  particular  aptitudes ;  for  instance, 
in  one  region  we  find  a  considerable  section  of  the 
peasantry  spending  part  of  the  winter  in  making 
ikons  (holy  pictures),  whilst  in  another  all  the  women, 
from  generation  to  generation,  have  been  skilful 
in  making  lace.  These  special  features  of  rural 
Russia  were  occasional,  without  organisation,  and 
sporadic.  But  they  were  the  basis  of  the  Russian 
koustari,  the  peasant  industries  which  are  being 
encouraged  by  the  provincial  governments,  rousing 
the  latent  skill  of  the  moudjik  and  his  family,  and 
bringing  occupation  and  pence  to  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  poor  folk  who  need  both. 

In  England,  one  sometimes  reads  about  the 
efforts  which  are  made  to  revive  rural  industries, 
and  titled  ladies  have  exhibitions  in  their  London 
residences  of  the  clever  things  that  are  made  by 
quite  simple  people  who  live  in  distant  shires.  These 
excellent  souls — and  particularly  those  people  who 
think  Russia  has  everything  to  learn  and  nothing 
to  teach — should  be  carried  on  the  magic  carpet  to 
Muscovy  to  study  the  koustari.  The  equivalent 
to  our  County  Councils  look  upon  this  development 
of  peasant  industries  as  a  most  important  growth 
of  national  life.  Many  of  the  most  charming  and 
artistic  people  in  Russia  are  zealously  concerning 
themselves  in  keeping  the  village  art  pure,  and  saving 
characteristic  Russian  designs  from  becoming  debased. 
I  spent  a  captivating  morning  in  a  little  museum 


198  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

in  Moscow,  where  there  is  a  collection  of  the  real  old 
articles  of  Russian  manufacture  in  embroidery* 
furniture,  carving,  household  decorations,  so  that 
those  at  the  head  of  the  koustari  schools  all  over  the 
country  may  have  the  correct  designs  to  follow. 
Many  of  the  most  distinguished  people  in  Russia 
are  working  enthusiastically  for  this  revival  of  peasant 
industry.  It  is  not  a  hobby  ;  it  has  gone  far  beyond 
being  a  pastime  with  occasional  displays  of  work 
for  leisured  people  to  inspect  and  exclaim,  "  How 
interesting  !  "  The  koustari  is  an  established  and 
important  fact  in  rural  Russia. 

Agriculture  is  the  staple  industry,  and  the  koustari 
therefore  is  special  work  in  small  manufacture  which 
the  peasants  are  taught  by  County  Council  classes. 
Here  and  there  the  demand  outgrows  the  productivity 
of  a  cottage,  and  then  you  come  across  the  enterpris- 
ing peasant  starting  a  small  factory  and  employing 
workers.  Then  there  is  the  dealer  who  provides  the 
semi-raw  material  to  the  peasants  to  work  upon  at 
home,  and  who  purchases  the  article  when  it  is 
completed.  So  tremendous  has  been  the  success 
of  the  koustari  organisations — in  practically  every 
case  started  and  run  by  the  local  authorities — that  it 
is  calculated  that  there  are  to-day  7,500,000  peasants 
in  Russia  occupying  what  was  formerly  their  "  spare 
time  "  in  making  such  articles  as  can  be  conveniently 
manufactured  in  the  cottage,  to  the  annual  value  of 
£160,000,000. 

The  moral  effect  on  the  Russian  rural  mind, 
turning  it  during  the  winter  months  to  useful  manu- 


GO-OPERATION  199 

factures,  stimulating  inventiveness  and  keeping  the 
artistic  sense  clean — for  I  believe  all  the  sale  shops 
of  the  koustari  are  under  the  control  of  the  provincial 
governments — is  incalculable.  Here  you  have  the 
peasantry  of  a  nation  saved  from  the  ennui  and 
the  torpor  consequent  on  non-occupation,  and  the 
eye  and  the  hand  are  trained  in  usefulness.  Though 
the  koustari  industry  has  aroused  no  interest  amongst 
foreign  students  of  Russian  affairs,  I  am  convinced 
that  it  will  have  an  increasing  effect  in  steadying 
the  Russian  character  into  channels  of  industrial 
usefulness.  Hitherto  the  Russian  has  been  too  much 
of  a  mental  wanderer  to  achieve  success  in  mechanics. 

The  variety  of  work  of  the  koustari  varies  from 
the  manufacture  of  agricultural  machines  to  the 
cutting  of  precious  stones.  Sometimes  the  koustar 
makes  bird-cages  ;  at  other  times  he  joins  with  his 
mates  in  the  building  of  barges.  He  may  devote  his 
evenings  to  the  carving  of  dolls,  whilst  a  brother  may 
make  a  graveyard  monument.  The  koustar  is  skilled 
in  producing  pottery,  which  his  daughter  paints. 
Just  as  the  co-operative  movement  is  spreading  in 
respect  to  purchasing  necessities,  the  same  scheme 
is  operative  amongst  the  koustars,  who  join  their 
funds,  start  small  factories,  and  on  the  communal 
system  share  the  profits  in  the  manufacture  of 
samovars,  watches,  knives,  nails,  and  half  a  hundred 
other  things. 

As  Russia  has  such  immense  forests,  and  wooden 
articles  are  more  in  use  in  agricultural  Russia  than 
elsewhere,  the  chief  products  of  the  koustari  are  in 


200  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

wood.  Furniture  in  the  old  Russian  style  is  a  feature 
of  the  koustari  in  the  Moscow  government.  It  is 
reckoned  that  one  hundred  million  wooden  spoons  are 
used  yearly  in  Russia — those  who  have  visited  out- 
lying parts  know  how  rare  a  metal  spoon  is — and 
most  of  these  are  painted  by  hand  with  primitive 
designs.  The  chief  work  in  this  way  is  in  the  region 
of  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  two  men,  one  doing  rough 
work  and  the  other  finishing,  will  turn  out  about 
three  hundred  spoons  a  day.  Twenty  million  sets 
of  wheels  are  required  annually,  and  at  least  a  hundred 
thousand  workmen  are  engaged  in  making  them. 
Exquisite  and  curiously  patterned  silver  work  is 
the  characteristic  of  the  government  of  Kazan. 

Then  there  is  textile  work.  The  most  primitive 
weaving  frames  are  used  by  the  peasants  in  their 
cottages,  but  the  material  produced  is  of  excellent 
quality.  Sixty  thousand  families  are  engaged  round 
about  Moscow  in  the  home  manufacture  of  textiles. 
Russian  ladies  have  got  the  women  interested  in 
embroideries  and  lace,  and  I  was  told  by  a  lady 
devoting  her  whole  time  to  furthering  peasant  in- 
dustries, that  no  fewer  than  50,000  women  in  the 
villages  are  now  making  lace  to  the  value  of  £3,200,000 
a  year.  The  implements  used  are  simple — a  round 
cushion,  spindle,  and  pins.  The  lace  is  often  of 
delicate  workmanship,  and  is  made  of  unbleached 
thread,  white,  blue,  or  red  cotton,  white,  black,  or 
pink  silk.  The  designs  are  traditions  "  permeated  by 
the  poetic  influence  of  centuries  of  peaceful  work, 
and  accomplished  under  the  sound  of  sad  melodies, 


CO-OPERATION  201 

before  the  faint  light  of  a  resin  burner,"  says  a 
Russian  writer.  Go  into  the  governments  of  Vladimir 
and  Koursk,  and  visit  the  widely  scattered  villages  in 
winter  time,  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  enter  a  hut 
where  some  member  of  the  family  is  not  making  a 
holy  picture,  an  ikon.  These  ikons  are  on  wood. 
The  paintings  are  in  accord  with  peasant  standards 
during  centuries.  One  cottager  may  paint  the  back- 
ground, whilst  another  paints  the  face  and  another 
the  hands,  whilst  still  others  paint  the  garments  and 
inscriptions.  Two  millions  of  these  ikons  are  made 
each  year. 

It  is  no  good  quoting  names,  because  they  will 
probably  be  unknown  to  British  readers ;  but  I 
would  like  to  say  that  all  the  leading  artists  in 
Russia  have  given  their  services  in  providing  designs 
which  will  be  beautiful,  and  at  the  same  time  not 
depart  from  tradition.  Many  ladies  have  started 
workshops  in  their  own  villages,  and  what  is  so 
surprising  is  the  quick  way  the  heavy,  thick- 
fingered  moudjik  will  learn  to  make  a  dainty  article. 

The  earnings  of  the  koustars  are  trifling.  Were 
great  factories  to  take  to  the  manufacture  of  kous- 
tari  wares  the  individuality  which  the  hand-made 
article  possesses  would  disappear.  But  in  price 
the  peasant  could  probably  defeat  the  big  manu- 
facturer. The  small  industry  is  a  subsidiary  occupa- 
tion for  the  little  farmer.  As  the  peasant  is  satisfied 
with  small  returns  he  can  compete  with  the  big  manu- 
facturer. The  Russian  central  Government  is  doing 
a  good  deal  to  encourage  the  koustari.  It  sends  out 


202  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

specialists  to  teach  villagers  how  to  make  things  ; 
it  publishes  pamphlets  of  designs,  sells  to  household 
manufacturers  the  needed  raw  material,  and  puts 
them  into  communication  with  the  stores  in  cities 
where  they  may  sell  their  products  outright  or  on 
commission. 

But  it  is  the  Zemstvos — of  which  there  are 
thirty-four  in  European  Russia — which  are  doing 
the  great  work.  They  are  spending  five  times  as 
much  for  the  encouragement  of  small  industries 
as  does  the  central  Government.  They  all  work 
together  and  on  a  plan.  Instead  of  each  Zemstvo 
"  running  its  own  show,"  it  devotes  special  at- 
tention to  one  branch  of  the  subject.  One  attends 
to  the  technical  side  of  koustari  work ;  another 
considers  means  for  selling  goods ;  a  third  organises 
popular  credit  for  household  manufacturers ;  a 
fourth  attends  to  getting  low-priced  raw  material, 
and  so  on.  The  Zemstvos  work  in  co-operation 
and  not  in  competition.  In  this  way  the  Nijni- 
Novgorod  Zemstvo  started  a  depot  to  buy  raw 
material  at  wholesale  prices,  particularly  metals 
from  the  State  factories,  and  these  are  retailed  at 
cost  price  to  the  koustari.  The  Zemstvo  of  Tver 
encourages  the  organisation  of  co-operative  socie- 
ties to  sell  peasant  wares.  The  Perm  Zemstvo 
started  a  special  loan  bank  to  assist  peasants  taking 
up  small  industries ;  the  Zemstvo  of  Koursk  or- 
ganises community  workshops  for  the  execution  of 
Government  orders,  such  as  bootmaking. 

The  Moscow  Zemstvo  is  a  model  to  the  whole 


CO-OPERATION  203 

country.  Its  museum  of  ancient  designs  is  along- 
side stores  where  you  may  purchase  excellent  re- 
productions. The  peasant  worker  can  always  apply 
to  the  authorities  for  raw  material,  and  be  sure  to 
get  it  at  cost  price.  There  is  an  abundant  market 
for  the  articles  made,  and  it  is  becoming  quite  the 
correct  thing  in  better-class  Russian  houses  to 
have  at  least  one  room  furnished  by  koustari  goods. 
As  I  have  mentioned,  I  have  stayed  in  a  datcha 
where  everything  was  the  product  of  the  koustari. 
When  I  saw  what  was  being  done  in  home  manu- 
facture I  could  understand  the  enthusiasm  of  my 
Russian  friends,  who  feel  that  the  movement  will 
lead  to  great  things  in  the  uplifting  of  the  peasantry. 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE   FOUNDLING   HOSPITAL   OF   MOSCOW 

WE  were  in  the  Kremlin,  the  holy  of  holies  in  Mus- 
covy. Looking  beyond  the  dull  red  walls  with  dull 
green  roofs  to  the  towers,  we  watched  a  hundred 
golden  crosses  above  the  churches  gleaming  in  the 
afternoon  sunshine. 

"  And  what  is  that  great  building  ?  "  I  asked, 
pointing  across  the  Mockva  River  to  a  huge  struc- 
ture like  a  whitewashed  Buckingham  Palace,  but 
twice  as  large. 

"  Oh,  that  is  the  Foundling  Hospital,"  was  the 
reply.  Had  my  friend  been  there  ?  No  !  He  had 
lived  many  years  in  Moscow,  and  had  never  been 
to  the  Foundling  Hospital.  He  did  not  know  any- 
body who  had.  I  made  inquiries,  and  could  find 
no  one  who  knew  anything  about  the  Foundling 
Hospital  except  what  its  name  implied.  And  when 
I  went  to  it  the  visitors'  book  showed  that  the  last 
time  an  entry  was  made  was  over  eleven  months 
before. 

Yet  it  is  unique  ;  there  is  no  place  in  the  world 
like  it.  Catherine  II.,  of  variegated  memory,  hear- 
ing that  many  hundreds  of  babies  were  left  to  die 
in  the  streets  of  Moscow,  founded  the  home.  It  was 
opened  on  her  birthday,  April  21st,  1764,  and  the 
204 


-THE   FOUNDLING    HOSPITAL        205 

first  foundling  was  christened  Catherine  and  the 
second  Paul.  That  year  523  foundlings  and  illegiti- 
mate children  were  admitted.  Now  13,000  children 
a  year  pass  through  the  hospital.  On  the  morn- 
ing I  was  there  I  saw  4,175  mites,  all  between  a 
week  and  a  year  old. 

Walking  through  the  wards,  with  hundreds  of 
nurses  holding  their  charges,  was  like  reviewing  a 
regiment  of  babies.  Including  the  little  ones,  the 
hospital  has  a  population  of  nearly  seven  thousand. 
It  costs  about  £120,000  a  year  to  maintain  the 
place  and  pay  for  the  keep  of  children  homed-out. 
Most  of  the  income  is  derived  from — where  would 
you  guess  ? — from  a  heavy  tax  on  playing-cards 
and  from  the  profits  of  the  State  pawnshops  !  There 
are  no  private  pawnshops  in  Russia,  but  the  State 
will  lend  you  money  on  anything  from  your  house 
to  your  watch. 

A  polite  old  lady,  the  matron,  was  courteous 
enough  to  show  round  the  hospital  myself  and  two 
Moscow  ladies  who  accompanied  me.  There  was 
much  that  was  pathetic  and  a  good  deal  which 
appealed  to  the  soft  side  of  one's  nature.  Some  of 
the  babies  were  gurgling  happily ;  others  were 
shrivelled  little  things  with  peaky  faces  ;  some  were 
dozing  in  their  cots  ;  many  were  kicking  and  scream- 
ing; most  were  at  the  breast  of  their  wet  nurses, 
who  in  the  majority  of  cases  are  peasant  girls. 

In  the  reception-room  were  two  young  mothers 
handing  over  their  illegitimate  children  to  the 
institution.  No  questions  are  asked  except  the 


206  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

child's  name,  and  whether  it  has  been  baptised. 
Sometimes  mothers  hand  their  babies  over  to  the 
porter  at  the  gate ;  they  are  never  refused,  but 
in  that  case  the  mother  loses  all  trace  of  the  child, 
for  it  is  numbered  and  a  name  given  it  according  to 
the  thought  of  the  first  nurse  who  receives  it.  But 
when  a  mother  herself  presents  a  child  she  receives 
a  blue  ticket  if  a  boy  and  a  pink  ticket  if  a  girl, 
numbered,  and  to  a  little  chain  to  go  round  the 
infant's  neck  is  attached  a  bone  counter  on  which 
is  its  number — I  saw  the  docketing  of  "  4560 — 
1915  " — and  on  the  other  side  a  cross  is  engraved. 
Near  the  institution  is  a  lying-in  hospital,  where, 
without  any  charge  whatever  and  without  any 
inquiries,  babies  can  be  brought  into  the  world ; 
and  the  mother,  if  she  desires  to  hide  her  identity, 
can  wear  a  mask  whenever  she  likes.  If  she  wishes, 
the  child  can  be  immediately  removed,  passed  to  a 
wet  nurse  in  the  hospital,  and  she  never  know  any- 
thing more  about  it.  Indeed,  there  is  a  secret  mater- 
nity ward  where  a  girl  may  come  and  have  a  baby 
and  nobody  know  anything  about  it. 

A  girl,  if  she  likes,  can  nurse  her  own  child  in 
the  hospital  and  receive  food  and  one  shilling  a  day 
payment ;  but  she  must  undertake,  as  soon  as  the 
baby  is  weaned  and  homed-out  in  a  village,  that 
she  remains  two  months  to  nurse  other  children. 
All  the  little  ones  are  foundlings,  or  illegitimate, 
or  the  offspring  of  widows  whose  husbands  have 
recently  died.  Of  course,  many  of  the  foundlings 
must  be  the  children  of  married  people,  but  no 


THE    FOUNDLING    HOSPITAL        207 

child  of  any  known  married  woman  is  admitted.  As 
all  women,  like  all  men  in  Russia,  have  passports, 
it  is  quite  impossible  for  a  married  woman  to 
pretend  she  is  single. 

Anyway,  the  mother  gets  a  card  with  the  number 
of  her  baby  upon  it.  At  any  time  within  seven 
years  she  can  reclaim  her  boy  or  girl,  and  the  village 
foster-parents,  who  have  received  payment  for 
the  child's  keep,  must  hand  it  over.  This  is  not 
at  all  unusual,  for,  when  the  girls  subsequently 
marry,  their  early  lapse  is  often  overlooked,  and  the 
husband  consents  to  the  child  being  brought  into 
the  home ;  often,  also,  he  is  the  father  of  the  child, 
but  has  been  away  on  military  service,  and  on  his 
return  he  marries  and  gets  the  child  back  again.  If, 
however,  the  little  one  is  not  claimed  before  it  is 
seven  years  of  age  the  parent  cannot  have  it  back 
without  the  consent  of  the  foster-parents,  who  may 
have  got  very  fond  of  the  boy  or  girl  and  do  not 
want  to  lose  it.  If  the  claim  is  not  made  till  after 
the  child  is  twelve  years  of  age,  then  its  consent, 
as  well  as  the  consent  of  the  foster-parents,  must  be 
obtained. 

The  matron  told  me  how  a  few  weeks  before 
a  well-dressed  lady  came  to  the  hospital,  and  said 
that  sixteen  years  previously  she  had  handed  a  baby 
girl  over,  and  now  that  she  was  wealthy — "  and 
turned  religious,"  added  the  matron — she  wished 
to  have  her  daughter  back.  As  she  had  her  pink 
card  it  was  without  much  difficulty  that  the  girl 
was  traced  to  a  distant  village,  where  she  was  living 


208  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

with  a  couple.  The  lady  went  and  saw  her,  wanted 
her  to  come  and  live  with  her,  and  promised  her 
luxury.  But  her  daughter  said,  "  I  don't  know 
you  ;  I've  always  looked  upon  these  people  as  my 
parents  ;  they've  been  very  good  to  me,  and  I  love 
them."  And  the  rich  woman  went  away  sad- 
hearted,  for  the  girl  remained  with  the  peasants. 

There  was  a  room  in  which  a  dozen  stout-built 
young  women  in  short  red  skirts  and  loose  white 
tunics  and  lawn  caps  were  dandling  a  dozen  tiny 
tots — all  of  them  foundlings  in  Moscow  during  the 
previous  night,  found  on  doorsteps,  in  gardens,  in 
railway  carriages.  To  two  of  them  had  been  pinned 
their  baptismal  certificates,  with  Christian  names 
attached.  The  youngsters  had  been  bathed,  and  put 
in  hospital  clothing,  and  were  happy  with  their 
new  mothers,  and  were  crooning  with  baby  joy — 
but  nameless,  parentless,  the  jetsam  of  a  great  city, 
blessedly  too  young  to  have  the  knowledge  which 
brings  sorrow. 

In  the  centre  of  the  building  is  a  sombrely  ornate 
chapel  of  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church,  heavily 
gilded,  and  with  many  sacred  pictures.  Here  on 
Sunday  come  hundreds  of  the  nurses  with  the  babies 
to  receive  the  benedictions  of  the  impressively 
garbed  and  bearded  priests.  My  visit  was  on  a 
Wednesday,  and  in  an  adjoining  small  chapel  were 
some  fifty  young  women,  all  in  the  fixed  peasants' 
uniform  of  the  hospital  and  with  babies  at  their 
breasts,  the  women  chattering  and  half  the  babies 
crying.  Every  child  was  one  of  the  foundlings 


THE    FOUNDLING    HOSPITAL        209 

picked  up  since  the  previous  Saturday,  and  they 
were  brought  naked  save  for  a  little  blanket  in 
which  they  were  wrapped  to  be  baptised.  Twice  a 
week,  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  there  is  a 
baptismal  service  for  all  the  foundlings  brought  in 
during  the  previous  few  days.  The  name  to  be  given 
is  pinned  on  the  little  blanket,  and  after  much  in- 
toning by  the  priest  each  girl  goes  forward  and 
the  priest,  taking  the  infant  in  his  arms,  completely 
submerges  the  baby  three  times  in  a  massive  silver 
font,  and  so  a  new  soul  is  placed  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Mother  Church. 

Storey  above  storey  rises  the  Foundling  Hospital, 
and  ward  opens  into  ward  along  both  sides  of  long 
corridors.  As  we  entered  a  ward  all  the  nurses 
rose  and  curtsied,  and  the  superintendent  hastened 
forward  to  give  greeting.  With  plenty  of  space, 
there  were  two  long  rows  of  muslin-covered  cots. 
Before  them  stood  the  nurses,  mostly  with  an  infant 
in  arms.  Despite  the  pleasant  uniforms  of  the 
women,  neat  and  all  clean,  and  with  caps  of  different 
colours  according  to  their  wards,  they  had  that  meek, 
patient  look  which  is  the  characteristic  of  the  Russian 
peasantry.  Some  of  them  were  mere  girls ;  others 
were  sturdy  women.  They  were  nursing  the  infants 
— several  of  the  stronger  women  could  feed  two  infants 
— or  standing  by  the  cot  soothing  the  restless  little 
lump  of  pink  humanity  or  watching  over  it  whilst 
it  slept.  There  is  a  big  bathroom  attached  to  each 
ward,  and  here  the  needs  of  the  youngsters  are 
looked  after.  Before  each  cot  is  a  box  which  con- 
o 


210  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

tains  the  necessary  clothing  for  the  baby,  and  also 
serves  as  a  seat  for  the  nurse.  All  the  nurses  have 
to  be  able  to  attend  to  the  child  at  the  breast  or 
they  are  no  use.  Though  many  of  the  girls  are 
attending  to  their  own  babies,  or  feeding  other  children 
after  their  own  have  been  taken  from  them,  some  of  the 
nurses  are  married  women,  who,  having  lost  their 
own  offspring  by  death,  come  into  the  hospital  for 
a  few  months  to  earn  money  by  suckling  little  out- 
casts. 

One  of  the  strict  rules  of  the  establishment  is 
that  there  must  be  no  swaddling.  The  wet  nurses 
generally  want  to  swaddle,  and  there  is  constantly 
something  like  a  tussle  going  on  between  the  super- 
intendent of  the  ward  and  the  nurses  who  think  they 
know  what  is  best.  Every  week  the  children  are 
weighed,  and  I  visited  one  ward  on  weighing  day. 
A  queue  of  women  was  slowly  passing  a  table,  on 
which  were  scales  with  a  scoop  kind  of  receiver,  and 
the  baby,  generally  with  a  protest,  was  laid  naked 
on  a  bit  of  flannel,  and  the  weight  entered  on  the 
nurse's  card  and  also  in  a  book.  In  one  room  was 
a  row  of  incubators  where  the  weaklings  are  placed. 

It  was  a  stifling  hot  day,  and  not  a  single  window 
was  opened.  The  atmosphere,  therefore,  was  not 
fresh.  A  courteous  suggestion  of  mine  that  it  would 
be  much  better  for  the  children  if  the  windows  were 
opened,  only  provoked  the  protest  that  it  would  be 
cruel  to  expose  such  little  babies  to  draughts.  The 
nurses  go  out  into  the  gardens  of  the  hospital  for 
a  few  hours  each  day,  but  the  children  are  kept  in  the 


THE   FOUNDLING   HOSPITAL        211 

wards  for  months  without  being  taken  into  the  open, 
unless  it  is  their  good  fortune  to  be  sent  during 
summer  time  to  one  or  other  of  the  little  cottages 
in  the  grounds,  rather  like  summer-houses,  where,  of 
course,  they  get  plenty  of  air. 

It  is  well  known  there  is  a  tremendous  mortality 
amongst  these  children  after  they  have  been  handed 
over  to  foster-parents  in  the  country.  I  cannot 
help  thinking  much  of  this  is  due  to  the  sudden 
transference  of  babies  from  the  hothouse  atmosphere 
of  the  hospital  to  the  village  huts.  The  matron 
admitted  the  appalling  mortality,  but  ascribed  it  to 
malnutrition,  for,  though  care  was  taken  to  find 
suitable  folk  to  take  the  children  (for  which  they  are 
paid  10s.  a  month  for  each  child),  it  is  hard  to  over- 
come the  ignorance  of  the  peasants. 

In  former  times,  when  serfdom  existed  in  Russia, 
these  illegitimate  children  were  all  "  fathered  "  by 
the  Crown.  As  they  grew  up  they  were  transferred 
to  "  colonies  of  the  Crown,"  and  marriages  were 
arranged  between  the  young  men  and  women ;  each 
couple  was  given  a  stretch  of  land,  a  furnished  house, 
a  horse,  a  cow,  and  some  sheep,  and  they  paid  no 
taxes.  That  system,  however,  has  disappeared  for 
over  half  a  century.  Technically  the  Governor  of 
Moscow  is  the  guardian  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  children  who  pass  through  the  portals  of  the 
hospital. 

These  little  illegitimates  are  better  looked  after 
than  peasant  children  born  in  wedlock.  The 
authorities  keep  in  touch  with  the  children,  and 


212  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

there  is  special  care  over  their  education.  Some  of 
the  girls  as  they  grow  up,  return  to  the  hospital  as 
servants,  and  remain  for  even  fifty  or  sixty  years,  so 
that  their  whole  life  is  spent  in  association  with  the 
establishment.  There  are  special  training  schools 
for  the  boys  and  girls  to  learn  thirty-six  different 
kinds  of  occupation.  The  lads  mostly  become 
artisans,  some  pupils  showing  aptitude  learn  foreign 
languages,  and  the  girls  become  governesses,  and 
the  young  men  pass  into  the  professional  classes. 
The  elder  girls  make  all  the  clothing  required  in  the 
hospital.  Those  specially  suitable  are  taught  dancing, 
and  in  time  pass  into  the  Imperial  Ballet.  The 
hospital  keeps  a  hand  on  the  young  men  till  they  are 
twenty-one,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  the  young 
women  are  free  from  all  obligation. 

I  have  heard  it  contended  that  such  a  hospital 
encourages  immorality.  I  do  not  believe  it,  though 
I  am  not  going  to  argue  the  point.  It  certainly 
prevents  child-murder.  But  one  could  not  help  being 
saddened  at  seeing  those  thousands  of  puny  children, 
coming  into  the  world  in  sin,  and  half  of  them  destined 
to  die  when  they  are  put  under  the  kindly  but 
ignorant  care  of  peasants.  It  is  unique  amongst 
the  charitable  institutions  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SOCIAL   LIFE 

IT  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  what  is  known  as 
"  the  nobility  "  in  Russia  is  the  new  nobility  which 
includes  all  those  who  have  entered  Government 
service — the  youth  who  has  graduated  at  a  University 
steps  on  to  the  first  rung  of  the  social  ladder  whatever 
his  origin.  The  ancient  nobility,  the  class  who  owned 
the  land  and  the  serf,  has  fallen  on  hard  times  since 
the  emancipation,  and  has  almost  ceased  to  exist 
as  a  class. 

Russian  nobles  are  as  common  as  blackberries, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  a  title  passes  from  the  father 
to  every  member  of  the  family,  male  or  female. 
Thus,  every  daughter  of  a  Prince  is  a  Princess  as 
well  as  every  son  a  Prince.  On  the  same  principle 
the  estate  is  left  to  all  the  sons  instead  of  to  the 
elder.  As  an  estate  cannot,  unendingly,  be  multi- 
plied or  divided  like  a  title  without  diminishing  the 
individual  share,  this  absence  of  a  law  of  primogeni- 
ture proved  the  undoing  of  the  Russian  nobility. 
Daughters  benefit  only  to  the  extent  of  one-fourteenth 
of  the  property,  but  they  are  provided  with  a  dowry 
that  often  makes  them  come  off  better  than  their 
brothers. 

There  are  no  feudal  castles  in  Russia,  no  historic 
213 


214  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

homes.  The  country  houses  are  generally  built 
of  wood  and  are  constantly  being  burned  down. 
Ancient  families  do  not  bear  the  name  of  a  place. 
There  is  nothing  answering  to  a  title  like  "  Earl  of 
Warwick,"  or  corresponding  to  the  French  de  or 
the  German  von.  Prince,  by  the  way,  is  the  only 
real  native  title.  Count  and  Baron  have  no  equiva- 
lent in  the  Russian  language. 

A  social  class  is  represented  by  the  odnodvortsy, 
or  *'  one  estate  man."  This  is  the  freest  man  in 
Russia.  He  is  subject  neither  to  the  communal 
system  nor  to  officialdom,  which  passes  him  over.  The 
old  nobility,  however,  have  become  more  or  less 
submerged  in  the  official  class. 

The  merchant  class  is  recruited  from  the  old 
nobility  and  the  peasantry.  Peter  the  Great  pre- 
vented the  old  nobility  from  engaging  in  commerce 
by  forcing  them  to  serve  the  State ;  this  practically 
placed  commerce  in  the  hands  of  foreigners.  The 
native  merchant  came  into  being  after  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  serfs,  and  there  are  millionaire  merchants 
to-day  who  were  born  serfs.  The  merchants  are  a 
distinct  class.  They  pay  prescribed  dues  to  be 
enrolled,  and  are  sub-divided  into  guilds  which  rank 
according  to  the  amount  of  dues  that  they  contribute 
to  the  State.  The  highest  class  has  the  privilege  of 
trading  anywhere  in  the  Empire  or  abroad.  A 
rich  merchant  may  be  all  but  illiterate.  He  always 
likes  to  entertain  an  official  in  a  uniform.  His  sons 
may  prefer  to  become  officials  and  to  wear  uniforms 
to  remaining  in  trade.  But  that  is  the  Petrograd 


SOCIAL   LIFE  215 

merchant.  The  Moscow  merchant  is  proud  of  his 
position,  and  has  no  hankerings  after  an  official  title 
like  his  Petrograd  brother. 

The  "  intelligent "  middle-class  considers  itself 
to  be  the  backbone  of  the  nation.  It  is  really  the 
professional  class.  Members  of  the  free  professions — 
that  is,  not  under  Government  control — make  up 
the  Intelligentzia. 

Russia,  therefore,  possesses  three  classes,  the  nobil- 
ity, the  peasantry,  and  the  intelligentry.  As  a  Govern- 
ment examination  will  admit  a  peasant  into  the  nobil- 
ity, so  a  smattering  of  knowledge  will  make  him  one 
of  the  Intelligentzia.  The  "  Intellectuals  "  are  earnest, 
unaffected  people,  usually  revolutionary  in  their 
ideals.  They  are  worshippers  of  ideas.  The  People 
is  their  idol.  To  educate  and  uplift  the  People  is 
the  great  aim  of  their  lives.  There  is  no  pose  about 
them.  There  is  no  more  delightful  place  in  Russia 
than  the  drawing-room  of  an  "  Intellectual  "  where 
ideas  are  being  exchanged  over  tea  and  cakes. 

Co-education  has  been  the  means  of  abolishing 
Mrs.  Grundy.  The  girl  attendant  at  the  University  is 
absolutely  free  and  easy  in  her  relations  with  her 
male  "  comrade."  She  eats  her  sausage  and  drinks 
tea  in  his  rooms,  and  discusses  the  regeneration  of 
Russia.  Women  are  not  excluded  from  the  social 
clubs.  Even  in  high  society  the  chaperon  no  longer 
exists.  The  Russians  are  altogether  simpler  in  their 
ways  than  we  are.  Evening  dress  is  not  required 
in  the  theatres  nor  at  the  dinner-table.  A  Russian 
dance  is  a  jolly  affair,  for  you  may  dance  a  dozen. 


216  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

times  with  the  same  girl,  if  you  will,  and  nobody 
says  anything.  The  Court  balls,  of  course,  are 
stiff  functions.  Low  necks  appear  there,  but  at  a 
private  party  a  woman  may  dress  as  simply  as  she 
pleases.  All  men  with  official  rank  wear  a  uniform 
on  all  occasions.  There  are  very  few  men  out  of 
uniform  in  the  upper  classes. 

A  Russian  wedding  is  a  charming  affair.  Crowning 
the  bride  and  bridegroom  is  a  pretty  ceremony,  which 
takes  place  when  the  knot  is  tied.  Everyone  has 
to  be  married  in  church  in  Russia.  No  marriage 
before  a  registrar  exists.  Couples  who  dispense 
with  the  blessing  of  the  Church  are  not,  however, 
boycotted.  Their  union  is  termed  a  "  civil  marriage  " 
and  receives  recognition. 

The  coming  of  winter  is  approached  in  a  business- 
like way.  First  of  all,  a  gang  of  workmen  take 
possession  of  a  house  or  flat — most  Petrograd  people 
live  in  the  latter,  either  one  floor  of  an  old  man- 
sion or  a  flat  in  a  huge  modern  building  with  a 
quadrangle.  It  is  the  workmen's  business  to  re- 
place the  double  windows  that  have  been  removed 
for  the  summer  months,  and  to  stop  up  every  nook 
or  cranny  with  putty.  One  small  pane  alone  is  made 
to  open,  and  that  will  be  only  for  a  few  minutes 
at  a  time,  for  cold  air  is  an  abomination.  The  stove 
is  a  monumental  affair,  but  the  stove  has  a  great 
part  to  play.  It  is  a  highly  scientific  piece  of  machi- 
nery. It  reaches  nearly  up  to  the  ceiling,  and  is 
made  to  heat  two  rooms.  The  lower  part  is  a  sort 
of  fire-box.  This  is  filled  with  wood.  The  flames, 


SOCIAL    LIFE  217 

when  the  wood  has  become  aglow,  shoot  up  and 
wander  through  various  passages  in  the  huge  stove 
until  the  whole  is  giving  out  heat.  Filled  in  the 
morning  with  birch  wood  fuel,  a  stove  will  retain 
its  heat  for  twenty-four  hours.  No  one  is  ever 
cold  indoors  in  Russia.  Woollen  underclothing, 
therefore,  is  rarely  worn.  There  is  little  necessity 
for  it.  All  a  Russian's  wraps  are  for  out  of  doors. 
When  a  call  is  paid  the  guest  sheds  his  or  her  gar- 
ments in  a  vestibule  which  is  built  for  the  purpose — 
a  kind  of  dressing,  or  rather  undressing,  room. 
Overcoats,  gloves,  and  overshoes  will  be  left  here, 
and  the  visitor  enters  clad  in  such  light  or  dainty 
array  as  may  suit  the  occasion. 

No  Russian  dreams  of  taking  walking  exercise 
in  the  winter.  They  get  out  of  the  habit  when 
summer  makes  it  possible  to  indulge  in  it.  Every 
moderately  well-to-do  person  keeps  a  carriage  or 
carriages.  It  is  regarded  as  a  simple  necessity  of 
life. 

Very  late  hours  are  kept.  Dinner  generally 
occurs  at  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  After 
dinner  there  is  a  siesta  which  freshens  up  the  family 
for  the  dissipations  of  the  night,  which  may  be  a 
visit  to  a  theatre  and  a  cafe  supper  with  music, 
or  cards  at  home  till  dawn.  If  you  call  on  a  Russian 
family  at  tea-time  you  may  reasonably  expect  to 
stay  to  supper  and  to  leave  in  the  small  hours. 

There  is  a  certain  type  of  well-to-do  gentleman, 
wearing  a  uniform,  that  you  may  meet  in  Petro- 
grad.  If  one  asks  him  anything  about  the  country, 


218  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

in  the  bucolic  sense  of  the  word,  his  ignorance  is 
amazing.  He  has  barely  heard  of  Great  Russia. 
He  has  heard  of  the  Duma,  of  course,  possibly  of  the 
Zemstvos  ;  but  he  all  but  asks  you,  "  What  is  a 
mir  ?  "  If  you  should  meet  this  person  you  may 
be  fairly  sure  that  he  is  a  landed  proprietor — a 
noble  farming  the  land  of  his  forbears  in  the  summer 
months  and  clad  in  a  grey  cotton  blouse.  It  is 
simply  a  little  piece  of  affectation.  But  his  type  is 
disappearing.  The  new  Russian  is  ceasing  to  be 
ashamed  of  the  real  Russian.  It  is  being  realised 
that  Russia  will,  and  can,  stand  on  her  own  merits. 

Stone  houses  are  not  considered  healthy  in 
Russia.  That  is  partly  why  the  country  houses  are 
built  of  wood.  The  westerner  will  be  struck  by  the 
neglected  state  of  the  park  land  surrounding  the 
country  house  of  a  nobleman.  The  house  itself  may 
be  elegantly  furnished  in  European  style,  and  fitted 
with  all  sorts  of  luxurious  appointments,  and  the 
approach  be  a  rough  meadow  used  as  grazing  land 
for  the  cattle.  If  the  house  is  still  in  the  hands  of 
the  old  family,  there  will  be  a  charming  relation- 
ship between  the  landlord  and  the  peasant.  From 
the  latter  he  never  expects  to  get  rent,  but  at  har- 
vest time  the  peasants  will  give  him  their  labour 
to  get  in  his  crop  in  return  for  their  food  and  a 
portion  of  the  crop. 

Some  of  the  nobility  spend  their  winter  on  their 
estates  with  their  families.  When  the  snow  comes 
the  life  is  pleasant  enough,  sleighing  over  the  crisp 
snow-fields ;  but  between  times  a  dismal  swamp 


SOCIAL    LIFE  219 

will   isolate   the   country   house   in   the   completest 
manner. 

The  lady  who  drives  about  Petrograd  behind  her 
fat  coachman,  and  plays  cards  till  the  small  hours, 
or  who  discusses  Kant  and  terrifies  one  with  her 
knowledge  of  international  literature  becomes  the 
most  efficient  of  housewives  in  the  country  —  a 
model  farmer  and  champion  poultry-raiser.  The 
servants  are  on  excellent  terms  with  the  Barina. 
Kissing  the  hem  of  her  dress  is  by  no  means  a  sign 
of  servility — even  when  it  is  done  as  an  apology 
after  some  offence  such  as  smashing  the  best  china, 
and  does  not  imply  that  the  servants  are  not  on 
the  easiest  terms  with  their  mistress.  The  upper 
servants  will  enter  the  room  without  knocking,  as 
a  matter  of  course.  The  village  between-maid,  on 
the  contrary,  will  not  even  dare  to  tap,  but  scratches 
on  the  Barina' s  boudoir  door  with  her  finger-nail. 
The  servant  becomes  a  member  of  the  family  in 
due  course.  The  czardom  of  the  old  family  ser- 
vant is  accepted  by  the  khazyaeeka  of  a  noble  family, 
and  their  guests  have  been  known  to  sit  at  table 
in  their  datcha  patiently  waiting  for  the  dinner 
that  was  not  forthcoming  owing  to  the  cook's  vodka 
habit.  No  severe  censure  would  be  passed  on  the 
latter.  The  hem  of  the  Matushka's  *  frock  would  be 
kissed  later  on  and  all  forgiven.  The  peasant  re- 
tainer will  also  kiss  your  feet ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  will  call  you  by  your  Christian  name  quite 
gaily  at  a  picnic  or  on  some  other  exhilarating  occasion. 
*  Dear  little  mother. 


220  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  scarcity  of  towns  is  a  peculiarity  of  the 
Empire.  A  country  town  may  contain  only  a  few 
hundred  inhabitants,  whereas  a  village  population 
may  run  into  thousands.  The  smaller  towns  are  often 
innocent  either  of  street-paving  or  a  system  of 
drainage.  The  shops  are  frequently  dark  little 
holes.  Only  recently  has  the  merchant  learnt  the  art 
of  putting  his  goods  in  the  shop  window.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  gentle  art  of  pictorial  advertise- 
ment may  be  said  to  have  originated  in  the  various 
shop-signs  that  hang  outside  the  shops  to  give  the 
passer-by  an  idea  of  what  is  sold  within.  These  are 
gradually  disappearing  from  Petrograd  ;  but  in  the 
small  towns,  where  the  customer  is  still  in  all  pro- 
bability illiterate,  they  remain  well  in  evidence. 
Some  are  effective.  They  remind  one  of  the  old  inn 
signboards  as  specimens  of  local  art. 

The  town  may  possess  a  railway  station,  and  if 
so,  this  being  a  State  erection,  will  be  sufficiently 
imposing.  But  a  station  may  be  as  many  as  ten 
miles  from  the  town  the  name  of  which  it  bears. 
The  Russian  Imperial  railways  decline  to  meander 
in  order  to  suit  the  convenience  of  wayside  towns. 
The  houses  are  either  not  numbered,  or  numbered 
promiscuously.  Neither  do  they  have  fancy  names 
like  "  Snowlands  "  or  "  Llan-something."  A  house 
is  known  by  its  owner's  name.  "  Smith's  house  '' 
houses  Smith  ;  but  if  Smith's  name  sticks  it  may 
house  Robinson  when  it  passes  from  Smith's  pos- 
session ;  so  the  place  is  net  so  simple  nor  so  definite 
as  it  sounds. 


SOCIAL    LIFE  221 

In  the  large  towns  houses  are  built  in  blocks  with 
a  courtyard.  Twenty  families  may  inhabit  one 
block,  and  the  dvornik — the  watchman  and  tale- 
carrier  to  the  police — has  enough  to  do  looking 
after  them  all.  There  is  no  lack  of  colour.  Each 
house  may  be  painted  a  different  colour,  and  the  roof 
a  different  hue  again — a  chocolate  house  with  a 
red  roof,  or  a  green  roof  over  a  pink  house.  The 
churches  have  their  gilded  and  coloured  cupolas. 
A  very  wide  main  street  will  make  the  houses  seem 
of  a  lesser  height  than  they  are.  The  bank  is 
always  an  imposing  building.  The  hotel  in  a  minor 
country  town  is  likely  not  up  to  date.  Even  such 
obvious  accessories  as  egg-cups  may  be  lacking.  Rus- 
sians have  a  way  of  sucking  a  raw  egg  which  makes 
the  egg-cup  less  essential.  The  larger  hotels  will 
sometimes  offer  the  visitor  the  regulation  musical 
entertainment  during  his  repast.  I  have  stayed  at 
an  hotel  where  the  music  was  provided  by  an 
enormous  orchestrome. 

In  the  hotels  of  the  country  towns  can  be  seen 
the  class  of  Russian  least  studied  by  the  outsiders 
— the  small  tradesman.  He  is  to  be  found  here  with 
his  family  in  the  parlour  drinking  tea,  and  he  and 
his  wife  smoking  cigarettes.  Cigars  in  Russia  are 
expensive  and  usually  bad. 

Towns  straggle,  like  the  villages,  with  waste 
spaces  of  land  between  the  masses  of  houses.  Log 
huts  form  the  dwellings  off  the  main  street.  Elec- 
tric light  and  electric  cars  arrive  in  front  of  what 
one  would  consider  more  vital  necessities  of  civi- 


222  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

lisation.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Novgorod,  which 
is  not  yet  lighted  with  gas,  there  is  an  estate  con- 
taining a  wood-sawing  industry.  The  buildings 
are  lighted  with  electricity,  even  the  pig-stys. 

The  Russians  have  no  equivalent  for  our  month 
at  the  seaside.  Well-to-do  Petrograd  and  Moscow 
folk  possess  villas  in  the  country  to  which  they 
migrate  during  the  summer  months.  These  datchas, 
as  they  are  called,  are  built  of  wood,  and  are  gener- 
ally only  one  storey  high.  The  rooms  are  lofty — a 
lean-to  bedroom  would  not  be  tolerated  in  Russia, 
where  they  have  a  great  belief  in  air-space,  if  not 
in  fresh  air.  The  furniture  is  quite  simple.  Some 
of  my  pleasantest  recollections  are  associated  with 
holidays  I  have  had  staying  in  datchas. 

The  family  lives  entirely  at  its  ease.  The  men 
often  wear  grey  blouses,  like  peasants,  and  the 
ladies  are  equally  unstudied  in  their  toilets.  For 
friends  to  turn  up  without  notice  and  take  pot- 
luck  for  several  days  is  quite  the  usual  thing. 
Russians  are  so  genuinely  hospitable  that  they  do 
not  invite  you  to  the  datcha  ;  you  just  go  whenever 
you  fancy,  and  they  are  delighted  to  see  you — 
accommodation  will  be  found  for  you  somehow. 
The  semi-formal  week-end  visits  that  we  sometimes 
endure  in  England  are  unknown  in  Russia.  A  datcha 
is  a  true  Liberty  Hall.  The  visitor  stays  as  long  as  he 
likes,  and  he  never  appears  to  outstay  his  welcome. 

The  wealthy  Petrograd  folk  hire  the  datchas 
on  the  islands  of  the  Neva.  These  are  perfectly 
delightful,  and  very  expensive. 


SOCIAL   LIFE  223 

The  Crimea  is  the  holiday  land  of  the  wealthy 
Russian.  The  Imperial  Family  usually  spend  many 
months  of  the  year  there.  The  nobility  and  some 
Grand  Dukes  have  villas  round  about.  The  Tar- 
tars call  the  Peninsula  the  "  Little  Paradise." 
The  scenery  is  the  finest  in  Russia.  I  have  had 
some  very  jolly  times  at  Yalta,  the  most  exqui- 
sitely charming  of  watering-places.  The  hill-sides 
are  dotted  with  Tartar  villages  and  luxurious  Euro- 
pean hotels,  fabulously  dear,  but  the  last  word  in 
catering  and  convenience.  The  marble  villas  of 
the  millionaires  are  on  the  shores  of  a  sea  that 
resembles  a  vast  lake. 

Yalta  is  the  Nice  of  the  Russian  Riviera.  It  is 
prodigiously  fashionable.  Uniforms  are  seen  every- 
where. All  the  visitors  are  Russian,  though  a 
wandering  vagabond  of  a  writer  may  drop  in  for  a 
few  days.  The  life  retains  the  Russian  free-and- 
easiness  in  spite  of  the  fashion.  The  ladies  don 
amazing  costumes  in  the  morning,  and  remain  in 
them  all  day.  They  never  change  into  evening 
dress.  Twenty  thousand  visitors  is  the  annual 
number  in  a  normal  season. 

An  enterprising  company  is  engaged  in  making  a 
health  resort  at  Gourzof.  Seven  magnificent  hotels 
have  been  built,  called  the  First,  Second,  Third,  and 
so  on.  The  cost  of  living  is  35s.  a  day  at  the  low- 
est. The  hotels  stand  in  gorgeous  grounds,  and  in 
the  evenings  they  are  illuminated  with  electric 
light.  A  doctor,  a  post  office,  and  a  church  are 
maintained  for  the  special  use  of  visitors. 


224  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

Aloushta  is  a  quaint  little  town  near  Yalta  with 
nothing  of  the  luxury  or  display  of  the  other.  People 
of  moderate  means  stay  there,  and  the  climate  is 
even  superior.  It  has  more  sunshine  and  less  fog. 
The  mountains  do  not  hem  it  in  as  closely  as  they 
do  Yalta.  There  is  a  "  grape-cure  "  which  adds  to 
its  popularity.  The  grapes  grown  here  are  of  so 
nutritive  a  kind  that  the  Tartars  manage  to  live 
on  them  entirely  during  the  gathering  season.  The 
"  cure  "  takes  five  weeks,  and  the  middle  of  August 
is  the  time  for  beginning.  I  have  never  taken  a 
"  cure,"  but  I  recall  how  cheap  the  grapes  were, 
and  some  of  my  friends  have  accused  me  of  con- 
suming as  much  as  five  pounds'  weight  of  them 
in  the  course  of  a  day. 

Another  of  the  "  cures  "  to  be  had  in  the  Russian 
Riviera  is  the  "  mud  cure."  Balaclava  provides 
this  attraction.  The  mud  is  said  to  possess  medicinal 
qualities.  The  first  piece  of  railway  in  Russia  was 
laid  down  here  by  the  English  in  the  days  when 
Balaclava  was  "  Little  England." 

The  Russian  middle-class  family  goes  out  in  a 
body  to  the  tea-gardens  and  drinks  numberless 
glasses  of  tea.  If  it  is  a  Petrograd  family,  the 
materfamilias  (sorrowfully  be  it  said)  will  resemble 
the  German  frau.  The  cut  of  her  clothes  will  be 
that  way.  The  husband  will  be  far  more  personable. 
The  zoological  gardens  outside  Petrograd  is  the 
place  for  drinking  tea  and  promenading  and  listening 
to  the  band.  The  animals  are  quite  by  the  way.  At 
the  open-air  theatre  the  performance  is  "  Western," 


SOCIAL   LIFE  225 

and  has  the  trail  of  the  German  over  it.     It  goes  on 
well  into  the  night. 

Russians  love  horse-racing.  The  season  lasts 
from  April  to  August,  and  there  are  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  thousand  spectators  daily.  Over  four  thousand 
horses  are  usually  in  training  at  the  Moscow  Im- 
perial Trotting  Club.  There  are  twenty-six  horses 
to  every  hundred  men  in  Russia,  as  we  are  con- 
stantly reminded  by  statisticians.  About  a  thousand 
race-horses  run  at  Petrograd  and  Moscow.  The  racer 
springs  from  a  breed  that  was  raised  by  the  famous 
Count  Orlov,  who  crossed  the  English  thoroughbred 
with  the  Russian.  The  horses  do  not  start  abreast. 
There  is  a  system  of  handicapping  by  weight  and 
distance.  A  horse  that  has  a  superior  speed  has  to 
carry  an  extra  weight  and  start  a  few  yards  farther 
back.  A  popular  form  of  race  is  one  in  which  the 
horses  are  driven  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  miles,  the 
last  mile  or  two  being  taken  at  their  full  speed.  The 
winner  is  the  animal  which  shows  itself  to  be  in  the 
best  condition  at  the  finish. 

Also  the  Russians  are  devoted  to  card-playing. 
Cards  are  played  all  night  long  in  the  private  houses 
and  at  clubs.  The  police  would  never  dream  of 
interfering.  The  salons  of  some  of  the  fashionable 
actresses  are  great  gambling  centres.  There  is  a 
tax  on  playing  cards  which  goes  to  the  support  of 
the  public  charities.  Their  manufacture  is  one  of 
Russia's  chief  industries. 

Each  class  possesses  its  club.  The  Russian  nature 
is  intensely  sociable.  The  high  nobility  have  theirs, 


226  RUSSIA   OF  TO-DAY 

the  lesser  chinovniki  theirs  ;  the  great  merchants, 
the  little  merchants,  and  the  working-classes  theirs. 
The  clubs  are  most  domestic  institutions.  Children's 
balls  are  one  of  the  features  of  their  entertainments. 
Dancing  is  freely  indulged  in.  All  the  clubs  have 
their  ball-room  as  well  as  their  concert-hall,  or 
combine  the  two.  The  Czar  has  presented  the 
Moscow  workmen  with  a  magnificent  palace,  which 
was  teetotal  long  before  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

EDUCATION 

IT  was  about  sixty  years  ago,  after  the  Crimean  War, 
that  Russia  seriously  asked  itself  what  was  it  that 
gave  other  countries  an  advantage  ?  The  answer 
was  summed-up  in  one  word — education.  But  what 
was  the  best  evidence  of  education  ?  Universities  ! 
Then  let  Russia  be  well  provided  with  Universities. 

So  Russia  provided  nine  Universities,  at  Moscow, 
Petrograd,  Kiev,  Kharkov,  Dorpat,  Warsaw,  Kazan, 
Odessa  and  Tomsk,  under  the  general  control  of  a 
University  Council.  There  is  a  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction ;  but  he  is  rarely  chosen  because  of 
his  scholastic  ability,  and  in  this  respect  his  appoint- 
ment is  not  much  different  from  that  of  Minister 
of  Education  in  England.  In  Russia,  the  Minister 
is  usually  a  soldier,  and  there  is  a  general  belief  that 
he  spends  most  of  his  time  in  sending  visitors  to  mingle 
with  the  students,  to  take  note  of  the  political  in- 
clinations of  those  young  gentlemen  and  ladies.  Such 
places  as  our  Oxford  and  Cambridge  do  not  exist. 
The  Government  decrees  a  University,  and  it  comes 
into  being ;  it  also  pays  expenses,  superintends 
examinations  and  takes  a  very  particular  interest 
in  the  individual  student,  paying  visits  to  his  home 
at  inopportune  moments. 

227 


228  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Critics  of  Russia,  and  especially  German  critics, 
constantly  allude  to  the  98  per  cent,  of  illiterates 
amongst  the  people,  and  compare  the  small  pro- 
portion of  the  national  budget  expended  on  educa- 
tion with  the  amount  annually  spent,  say,  on  the 
police.  But  it  has  to  be  recognised  that  within 
recent  years  a  system  of  universal  education  is  sorting 
itself  out  of  an  unwieldy  scheme,  merely  existing 
on  paper.  The  State  is  slowly,  cumbrously  estab- 
lishing national  education  throughout  the  Empire. 
Although  in  1912  a  measure  for  compulsory  educa- 
tion came  into  force,  it  is  so  complicated,  and  depart- 
ments so  overlap,  that  up  to  the  present  there  is 
little  evidence  of  progress  except  confusion.  Many 
of  the  State  schools  are  under  the  control  of  different 
departments.  The  machinery  is  worked  by  the 
Holy  Synod,  the  Zemstvos,  and  the  municipalities, 
but  the  Ministers  for  War,  Finance  and  Agriculture 
also  have  schools  under  their  control.  There  is 
a  dearth  of  teachers  due  to  the  small  salary  paid. 
There  is  objection  to  schools  being  controlled  by  the 
Holy  Synod,  for  there  is  a  suspicion  amongst  the 
Intelligentzia  that  they  are  used  to  inculcate  anti- 
liberal  doctrines  into  little  minds. 

Sixty  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  in  the  State  schools 
are  women,  many  of  them  highly  educated,  most  of 
them  with  advanced  political  views,  and  they  in 
their  turn  are  frequently  suspected  of  inculcating 
dangerous  ideas.  To  the  foreigner,  taking  as  he 
believes  an  enlarged  view  of  the  virtues  of  education, 
it  is  deplorable  to  find  that  nearly  every  movement 


EDUCATION  229 

depends  on  politics — whereas  the  child  should  travel 
a  long  way  before  he  ought  to  be  bothered  with  poli- 
tics. A  few  years  ago,  England  was  in  a  pother 
whether  religious  instruction  in  our  schools  should  be 
dogmatic,  undenominational  or  omitted  altogether. 
When  we  recall  the  bitterness  of  that  controversy, 
we  can  understand  something  of  the  intensity  of 
feeling  which  prevails  in  Russia  on  "  enlighten- 
ment." The  Zemstvos,  usually  the  most  clear- 
headed authorities,  have  done  a  good  deal  to 
purge  elementary  education  of  political  nonsense, 
and  to  attend  to  the  immediate  business  in  hand. 
The  village  schools  established  by  the  Zemstvos  are 
undoubtedly  on  the  right  lines,  though  I  have  come 
across  people  who  are  afraid  they  are  "  going  ahead  " 
somewhat  too  rapidly. 

Co-education — boys  and  girls  studying  together 
— is  usual  and  works  well.  No  prizes  are  given, 
and  there  is  no  corporal  punishment.  The  town 
schools  give  a  six  years'  course,  and  pupils  go  from 
them  to  the  technical  schools,  and  in  particular  cases 
to  the  Universities.  Every  University  is  crowded. 
The  students  are  often  very  poor.  They  are  all 
enthusiastic  and  ambitious.  A  University  educa- 
tion is  necessary  for  most  Government  posts.  It 
is  the  desire  of  most  young  Russians  to  get  a 
Government  post,  and  to  wear  a  uniform.  But 
multitudinous  though  Government  posts  are,  there 
are  not  enough  to  go  round.  Hundreds  of  thousands 
of  young  fellows  are  excluded,  and  it  is  amongst 
this  disappointed  class  that  you  generally  find  the 


230  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

most  ardent  champions  for  drastic  changes  in  methods 
of  administration.  The  Jews  are  under  disabilities  ; 
they  are  usually  obliged  to  reside  in  particular  areas. 
When  you  find  many  of  them  in  the  prohibited 
areas  as  lawyers  and  doctors,  it  is  because  they  have 
gained  the  privilege  by  taking  their  degrees  at  a 
University. 

Russians  are  always  ready  to  look  at  something 
new.  If  there  is  anything  novel  in  education  it 
is  sure  to  have  a  vogue.  There  are  private  schools 
to  develop  initiative,  avoid  routine,  and  make  all 
study  spontaneous.  Madame  Jarintzoff  tells  an 
amusing  story  of  an  experiment  in  Moscow,  where  a 
school  was  started  called  "  The  Home  of  the  Free 
Child."  Here  the  pupils  attended  for  just  as  much 
of  a  lesson  as  they  fancied.  They  wandered  from 
class-room  to  class-room  while  the  patient  teachers 
wooed  their  fickle  fancy  with  fresh  subjects,  address- 
ing a  shifting  audience.  Another  section  of  schools  of 
the  reformed  order  is  the  "  Free  Gymnasia."  These 
have  to  be  nominally  under  the  control  of  the  head 
of  the  Educational  Department.  They  are  secondary 
schools,  and  the  inspector  keeps  a  sharp  eye  on  the 
list  of  subjects  taught.  This  type  of  school  dispenses 
with  the  opening  prayer  and  teaches  biology. 

Above  the  elementary  schools — comparatively 
few  and  far  between — are  the  gymnasia,  rather  like 
grammar  schools  and  under  Government  control. 
They  give  a  higher  education.  From  the  tasks  set  some 
of  my  young  friends,  I  know  the  examinations  are 
terribly  stiff — many  boys  and  girls  break  down  in 


EDUCATION  231 

health  under  the  severity  of  the  work — but  these 
are  deliberately  hard  in  order  to  weed  out  the  inferior 
student,  who,  if  he  fails  two  years  running,  is  obliged 
to  leave  the  gymnasium. 

The  girls  of  the  upper  classes  are  educated  either 
at  "institutes" — that  is,  boarding  schools — or  in  gym- 
nasia. The  former  are  for  one  class  only,  generally 
the  nobility,  but  the  latter  are  democratic  enough  to 
admit  all  classes.  The  institute  turns  out  the 
society  butterfly  ;  the  gymnasium  the  woman  whose 
culture  surprises  her  western  sisters.  There  are 
institutes  for  the  daughters  of  officers  killed  in  war. 
The  Empress  Marie,  a  lady  of  a  century  back, 
established  a  number  of  institutes  for  girls,  as  well  as 
day-schools.  The  institute  girl  is  supposed  to  be 
recognisable  by  her  graceful  carriage  and  studied 
deportment.  The  woman  who  has  merely  been  to 
school  will  lack  these  acquired  graces. 

The  State  educates  and  brings  up  a  number  of 
its  children.  Boys  destined  for  the  army  are  taken 
at  the  age  of  ten  years  into  the  military  schools. 
The  Imperial  care  is  also  extended  to  the  children 
who  are  to  be  trained  as  dancers  for  the  Imperial 
Ballet.  These  are  also  housed  and  clothed.  The  sons 
of  the  clergy,  till  recently,  destined  as  a  matter  of 
course  for  the  Church,  are  also  educated  free  of  charge. 

A  large  number  of  well-to-do  families  educate 
their  children  by  means  of  tutors  and  governesses. 
Sometimes  two  or  three  of  each  are  retained.  There 
is  the  resident  English  governess,  from  whom  the 
boys,  as  well  as  the  girls,  gain  their  fluency  in  our 


232  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

language,  and  many  of  the  Russians  astonish  the 
English  visitor  by  their  accurate  and  fluent  English, 
acquired  entirely  from  the  English  governess.  More 
than  once — indeed,  often — I  have  met  Russians  who 
spoke  English  so  correctly  that  I  could  not  help 
believing  they  must  have  spent  many  years  in 
England,  whereas,  in  fact,  they  have  never  even 
visited  the  country.  In  well-to-do  families  it  is 
usual  to  have  an  English  nurse,  then  English  and 
French  governesses,  and  in  the  case  of  young  ladies 
to  have  an  English  companion.  Many  a  Russian 
will  tell  you  that  he  spoke  English  before  he  learnt 
his  native  tongue.  English  governesses  get  well 
paid  in  comparison  with  what  they  earn  at  home. 
Sometimes  it  is  their  lot  to  live  with  charming  fami- 
lies. Sometimes  they  are  not  so  fortunate.  My 
sympathy  has  often  gone  out  to  these  women, 
some  of  them  no  longer  young,  living  on  estates 
many  miles  from  big  towns,  with  no  one  except  the 
pupils  to  speak  English  to,  very  lonely,  often  home- 
sick, sad  to  the  heart.  Some  never  settle  down. 
Others  like  Russia,  and  in  the  capital  there  are  a 
number  who  remain  from  choice,  teach  Russian, 
and  become  Russian,  in  some  cases  even  joining  the 
Orthodox  Church. 

I  used  to  think  the  American  child  was  the 
most  impudent  and  exasperating  self-conscious  little 
animal  till  I  became  acquainted  with  the  Russian 
child.  Madame  Jarintzoff  is  right  when  she  says 
the  peasants'  children  are  ever  eager  to  learn,  and 
they  are  for  the  most  part  very  intelligent.  Modern 


EDUCATION  233 

peasantry  is  longing  to  be  taught ;  "  mind  and 
wisdom,"  they  call  it.  But  the  offspring  of  subur- 
bans (one  of  the  nine  orders  of  the  Russian  people) 
are  such  a  rough  and  vulgar,  often  cruel  set  of  young- 
sters, that  they  can  in  no  way  be  compared  with 
the  average  children  of  an  English  elementary 
school.  The  boys  and  girls  of  the  educated  classes  are 
spoiled — the  boys  and  girls  under  twelve  or  four- 
teen. They  are  gifted,  clever  ;  but  in  the  majority  of 
cases  lazy,  self-willed,  quarrelsome,  noisy,  off-hand, 
and  disorderly.  If  any  children  at  all  are  to  be 
smacked,  such  spoiled  Russian  ones  should  be 
selected  for  that  purpose  first. 

The  parents  themselves  are  to  blame  for  the 
cheeky  manners  of  Master  Russian.  They  coddle 
and  cozen  him,  consider  his  rudeness  a  sign  of  spirit, 
and  his  impertinence  as  proof  of  cleverness.  It  is 
rare  that  any  reproof  is  administered,  and  as  for 
giving  a  mischievous  lad  a  thrashing,  the  thing  is 
unheard  of.  Corporal  punishment  at  schools,  as  I 
have  mentioned,  is  prohibited.  Fearing  no  conse- 
quences, the  Russian  lads  lead  their  masters  a  fine 
dance.  They  will  guy  an  English  master's  bad 
Russian  to  his  face  and  shriek  with  laughter.  Some- 
times they  refuse  to  obey  instructions.  I  have  been 
told  that  sometimes  a  whole  class  will  insist  on 
smoking  cigarettes.  It  is  the  boys  who  decide  what 
shall  be  done,  not  the  masters.  The  worst  punish- 
ment that  can  befall  an  obstreperous  youngster  is  to 
be  suspended  from  attending  school — and  this  is 
just  what  the  lad  enjoys. 


234  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Games  in  the  English  sense  are  almost  unknown 
— though  here  and  there  is  a  football  club — and 
quite  young  people,  instead  of  devoting  their  spare 
time  to  cricket  or  paper-chasing,  or  tennis,  are  prone 
— I  use  that  word  because  I  know  there  must  be 
exceptions,  and  I  desire  to  avoid  a  sweeping  allega- 
tion— to  be  prurient-minded  and  to  discuss  sex 
relationship  quite  freely.  Being  a  man  of  the 
world  I  am  not  squeamish  ;  but  it  does  make  one 
shiver  when  a  father,  with  much  gusto,  narrates 
how  his  lad,  aged  fifteen,  has  taken  to  frequenting 
houses  of  ill-fame.  A  friend,  long  resident  in 
Russia,  told  me  he  knew  of  a  lady  who  provided  her 
nephew  with  money  so  he  might  have  a  holiday 
with  a  cocotte  as  a  reward  for  having  passed  his  school 
examinations.  These  things  are  regarded  differ- 
ently hi  Russia  from  the  way  they  are  in  England. 
But  it  would  be  one  of  the  finest  things  for  the 
youth  of  Russia  if  English  public  school  games 
could  be  introduced  and  made  popular. 

The  Russian  Universities  are  seats  of  learning 
and  of  political  disturbance.  When  these  disturb- 
ances occur  the  Government  closes  the  Univer- 
sity, and  the  recalcitrant  student  cannot  take  his 
degree  until  he  promises  to  behave  himself.  As  it 
is  impossible  to  enter  the  professions  without  a 
diploma,  the  student  is  reduced  to  penury  by  this 
hiatus  in  his  collegiate  career.  In  1887  the  Univer- 
sities were  placed  under  police  supervision.  The 
studentchestvo  has  always  been  foremost  in  the 
"  fight  for  freedom."  A  reaction  has  set  in  since 


EDUCATION  235 

the  great  revolutionary  climax  in  1911,  when  hun- 
dreds of  students  were  transported.  At  Moscow, 
the  scene  of  the  most  violent  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  student  to  gain  autonomy,  a  body  of  professors 
resigned  as  a  protest.  A  new  type  of  student  also 
entered,  while  those  who  remained  were  men  who 
did  not  feel  inclined  to  give  up  their  career  for  the 
sake  of  politics.  So  the  student  of  to-day  is  a  com- 
paratively mild  person.  At  Petrograd  the  examina- 
tions have  been  made  easier  so  as  to  attract  certain 
placable  minds  not  hitherto  up  to  the  standard — 
or  so  say  the  old  studentchestvo.  The  student  has 
now  an  enemy  in  his  midst  in  the  academist  who 
belongs  to  the  "  True  Russian  People's  Union." 
He  is  supplied  with  a  revolver  by  the  police,  to  use, 
if  necessary,  against  his  fellows.  This  was  actually 
done  at  the  Odessa  University  in  1912  at  a  pro- 
hibited meeting,  and  a  student  named  Tglitzki  died 
from  wounds  received. 

The  college  at  Dorpat  formerly  educated  all  the 
doctors  in  Russia.  The  Medical  Academy  at  Petro- 
grad was  always  more  or  less  of  a  military  institu- 
tion. It  trained  the  army  doctors,  but  civilians 
were  admitted  as  well.  In  1913,  an  Imperial  ukase 
turned  it  into  an  exclusively  Military  College.  The 
students  were  given  the  rank  of  privates  and  volun- 
teers. The  course  of  study  was  abbreviated,  and 
a  sabre  added  to  the  student's  uniform.  There  was 
a  huge  revolt.  The  Academy  was  promptly  closed. 
Then  the  women  medical  students  came  to  the 
rescue  of  their  "  comrades."  They  threw  open  their 


236  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

own  lectures  at  the  Women's  Medical  Academy  to 
the  recalcitrant  medicos;  but  this  was  not  per- 
mitted. 

The  revolutionary  character  of  the  student  has 
been  put  down  to  the  lack  of  restraint  in  his  school- 
days. The  police  officer  is  his  first  real  schoolmaster. 
A  sentence  of  five  years'  exile  is  passed  on  a  lad 
who  would  have  regarded  a  thrashing,  such  as  our 
public  school  boys  get,  as  an  unsurvivable  outrage 
to  his  dignity.  There  is  no  one  to  shepherd  the 
student  or  influence  his  ideas.  The  lecturers  deliver 
their  lectures,  and  their  duty  is  done.  There  are  no 
sports.  The  student  is  left  alone  with  his  dream  of 
regenerating  Russia  single-handed.  There  are  no 
resident  students.  Board  and  lodging  have  to  be 
found  in  the  town.  It  is  reckoned  that  about  80 
per  cent,  of  the  11,000  students  at  the  Moscow 
University  are  abjectly  poor.  During  the  vaca- 
tion they  follow  any  calling  that  comes  handy  for  a 
living.  The  fees  are  very  small,  and  the  Universities 
themselves  are  poorly  endowed. 

As  the  Universities  are  under  complete  Govern- 
ment authority  there  has  arisen  an  interesting  edu- 
cational venture  in  Moscow.  This  is  the  Shaniavsky 
University.  It  is  a  private  institution  endowed  by 
a  private  individual.  The  Educational  Society  of 
Moscow  maintains  it.  Here  the  best  professors  give 
courses  of  lectures  to  which  persons  of  every  class 
of  society  flock.  The  University  has  not  the  power 
to  confer  diplomas,  which,  as  I  have  pointed  out, 
are  indispensable  in  Russia  if  anyone  wishes  to 


EDUCATION  237 

enter  a  Government  profession.  So  many  of  its 
students  remain  at  the  Moscow  University  for  this 
purpose,  but  pursue  serious  knowledge  at  the  free- 
lance seat  of  learning.  Army  officers  are  among  its 
students,  and  a  large  number  of  leisured  women,  as 
well  as  the  peasant  "  intellectual."  The  highest  fee 
is  £1  a  year,  but  for  workmen  there  is  a  specially 
reduced  fee  of  3s.  per  annum.  Anyone  over  16  years 
of  age  may  become  a  member. 

The  famous  Smolensky  School,  started  many 
years  ago  outside  Petrograd  to  teach  the  workmen 
many  things  that  they  ought  to  know,  was  closed 
by  the  Government  a  year  or  two  back.  It  was 
immensely  popular,  but  the  evening  classes  were 
carried  on  with  all  the  reserve  of  a  mystic  sect. 
Members  were  invited  privately  by  the  teachers, 
who  visited  the  factories  for  the  purpose.  The 
rapidity  with  which  these  adult  peasants  learned 
to  read  is  said  to  have  been  amazing.  The  Govern- 
ment marked  signs  of  political  activity,  and  the 
Smolensky  School  was  closed  down. 

The  steady  flow  of  progressive  ideas  hardly  gives 
time  to  mark  epochs  in  the  education  of  Russian 
women,  but  one  date — 1861 — stands  out  clearly. 
A  woman  then  asked  to  be  allowed  to  take  a  course 
of  medicine,  and  was  admitted.  "  Let  us  study  law," 
"  Let  us  study  mathematics,"  and  they  flocked  in 
ever-increasing  numbers,  only  to  have  the  door 
closed  altogether  by  a  timid  University  Board. 
"  Well,  we  can  go  elsewhere  !  "  And  they  flocked 
to  Zurich,  to  Berlin,  until  they  had  convinced  men 


238  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

that  feminine  education  was  a  valuable  asset,  anc1 
regular  University  courses  were  organised.  The 
Women's  School  of  Medicine,  with  1,000  beds, 
was  arranged  at  the  Nicholas  Military  Hospital, 
and  male  professors  lectured.  After  the  Bulgarian 
War  sixty  students  became  doctors,  and  many 
of  them  were  decorated  for  work  among  the 
wounded. 

There  is  no  prejudice  against  "  inky  ladies." 
One,  Princess  Dashkoff,  was  President  of  the  Aca- 
demy of  Sciences  and  director  of  some  newspapers; 
Marie  Markovitch  was  renowned  as  a  novelist  deal- 
ing with  communal  life;  and  Valentine  Dmitrieff, 
in  exile  at  Tver,  wrote  valuable  papers  on  village 
conditions  and  reforms.  Marie  Tsebrikoff  directs 
the  paper  Education  and  Instruction,  and  is  a  power- 
ful leader  in  the  emancipation  of  women.  No 
country  has  produced  so  great  a  woman  mathe- 
matician as  Sophia  Kovalevsky,  who  took  the 
Bordin  Prize  in  Paris  (1888) ;  and  perhaps  it  may 
be  fair  to  claim  Madame  Curie,  the  discoverer  of 
radium,  as  a  Russian  scientist,  though  she  hails 
from  Warsaw.  Some  of  us  heard  Marie  Bashkirt- 
selff  speak,  and  most  of  us  have  read  her  "  Letters  " 
and  "  Diary."  A  lady  of  great  fame  and  a  very 
long  name  is  Mile.  Perejoslavsiva,  director  of  the 
biological  station  at  Sebastopol  and  helper  in 
scientific  surveys. 

To-day  in  Russia,  as  in  most  countries,  women 
of  all  classes  become  scientists,  authors,  teachers, 
and  clerks.  They  are  keen  on  social  reform.  That 


EDUCATION  239 

some   of  them  are  "  Terrorists "   has  been  amply 
shown  in  recent  history. 

Generally  speaking,  education  in  Russia  is  rather 
in  the  melting-pot.  Intellectually,  Russia  has  as 
high  a  standard  as  England.  The  trouble  is,  that 
some  people  think  an  intellectual  person  is  neces- 
sarily a  dangerous  person. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

A   LAND   OF   MANY   RELIGIONS 

I  DO  not  desire  to  over-accentuate  the  fact  that  the 
natural  devoutness  of  the  Russian  impresses  one. 
There  can  never  fade  from  my  memory  a  visit  I 
paid  to  Kiev,  the  holy  city  of  Russia,  and  where 
Christianity  was  first  preached.  The  monastery  is 
imposing,  and  there  are  wonderful  catacombs  with 
dark  cells,  where  in  far-off  days  saintly  men  lived. 
Here  come  thousands  of  pilgrims.  I  joined  them, 
and,  carrying  a  candle  in  my  hand,  moved  with  the 
great  throng  along  narrow,  gloomy  passages,  and 
watched  the  way  in  which  the  shrines  were 
approached  and  reverently  kissed.  I  put  forward 
no  claims  for  myself — I  went  there  as  a  spectator 
— but  no  man  can  witness  the  piety  of  these  wor- 
shippers, many  drawn  from  far  corners  of  the 
Empire,  without  realising  they  have  a  very  precious 
possession. 

The  Christian  religion  in  Russia  was  grafted 
on  to  Paganism.  A  Moslem  invader  then  helped 
to  identify  it  with  patriotism  by  attacking  Russia 
and  Christianity  simultaneously.  To-day,  orthodoxy 
and  patriotism  are  the  same  thing  to  the  Russian 
masses.  "  Holy  Russia "  means  that  Russia  is 
religious  and  that  religion  is  Russian. 
240 


A    LAND   OF   MANY   RELIGIONS     241 

The  Russian  Church  is  governed  by  a  convention 
called  the  Holy  Synod,  which  has  at  its  head  a 
Procurator  who  represents  the  Czar,  and  sees  that 
the  supremacy  of  the  State  is  not  interfered  with. 
The  Procurator  is  nicknamed  the  "  Emperor's 
eye."  The  Holy  Synod  is  made  up  of  three  metro- 
politans, a  number  of  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  a 
small  number  of  the  inferior  clergy.  It  is  appointed 
by  the  Czar,  who  can  dismiss  any  member  he  pleases. 
The  clergy  are  divided  into  two  classes,  the  White  or 
secular  clergy,  and  the  Black  clergy  or  monks. 
The  White  Priests  must  marry,  but  the  Black  Priests 
must  not.  These  latter  are  men  of  better  education 
than  the  parochial  clergy.  The  village  "  pop,"  as  he 
is  called,  has  no  chance  of  being  promoted  to  a 
bishopric  unless  he  first  becomes  a  monk.  This  is 
only  possible  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  his  wife. 
The  authorities  provide  him  with  a  wife  before  he 
takes  holy  orders.  The  lady  is  selected  from  among 
the  daughters  of  other  village  "  pops." 

Formerly  the  priesthood  was  a  kind  of  hereditary 
caste.  A  priest's  son  was  compelled  to  become  a 
priest.  But  latterly  this  law  has  been  rescinded, 
and  freedom  to  enter  a  lay  profession  is  accorded 
to  the  "  pop's  "  son.  In  consequence  of  this,  there 
is  a  shortage  of  clergy  in  the  Russian  Church.  In 
1905,  a  certain  liberty  of  conscience  was  granted 
to  Russians.  Officials  are  no  longer  compelled  to 
receive  the  sacrament  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith, 
and  dissenters  may  build  themselves  churches  if 
their  body  consists  of  more  than  fifty  persons. 


242  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  Russian  Church  stands  midway  between 
Roman  Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  Its  ritual 
is  more  complicated  and  ornate  than  that  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Its  fasts  are  more  frequent 
and  rigid.  In  doctrine  there  is  little  difference,  but 
the  Russian  Orthodox  Christian  has  a  bigger  quarrel 
with  Rome  than  he  has  with  the  Protestant  churches. 
It  is  intensely  Slavonic.  It  has  remained  so  in 
spite  of  all  westernising  influences,  such  as  have 
modified  the  national  ideal  in  secular  matters.  That 
is  why  the  peasant  sticks  to  his  church.  It  repre- 
sents Holy  Russia. 

The  Government  gives  recognition  to  certain 
other  religions.  Poland  is  mainly  Catholic.  Finland 
is  almost  entirely  Lutheran.  The  Lutherans  in 
Russia  are  a  large,  well-organised  body  of  about 
six  million  members.  They  are  found  all  over 
Russia,  and  their  Church  is  distinct  from  that  of 
Germany  or  Sweden.  The  Lutheran  enjoys  full 
freedom.  The  only  thing  he  may  not  do  is  make 
a  convert  from  the  Orthodox  Church.  There  is  no 
missionary  spirit  in  the  Russian  Church,  except 
from  political  motives,  but  woe  to  the  church  or 
sect  that  perverts  a  member  of  the  Orthodox 
Communion. 

There  exists  an  immense  body  of  schismatic 
believers  in  Russia.  They  call  themselves  the  "  Old 
Ritualists. ' '  They  date  from  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  certain  changes  were  made  in  the  wording  of  the 
liturgy  by  a  reforming  patriach.  The  changes  were 
small  :  two  alleluiahs  instead  of  three,  and  the 


A   LAND    OF   MANY   RELIGIONS     243 

sign  of  the  cross  made  with  three  fingers  instead 
of  two.  But  the  old  believers  scented  heresy  in  this 
interference  with  the  existing  thing.  They  broke 
themselves  off  from  the  body  of  the  Church,  which 
they  denounced  as  "  Satan's  Synagogue,"  and  set 
up  for  themselves.  To-day  they  number  some 
twenty-five  millions.  The  respectable  middle-class 
Russian  merchant  is  nearly  always  a  Raskolnik,  or 
"  old  believer." 

The  Church's  public  ceremonies  are  a  kind  of  social 
function.  The  blessing  of  the  waters  of  the  Neva  at 
Petrograd,  on  January  6th,  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany, 
is  one  of  these  ecclesiastical  functions.  The  archi- 
mandrite, robed  in  full  canonicals,  performs  the 
ceremony  in  front  of  the  Winter  Palace.  The 
Imperial  Family  is  always  in  attendance.  The 
archbishop  recites  certain  prayers,  and  then  makes 
a  hole  in  the  ice  with  his  crozier.  From  this  hole 
water  is  taken  and  presented  to  the  Sovereign  to 
taste.  As  the  water  of  the  Neva  is  known  to  be 
of  the  most  pestilential  kind  this  part  of  the  cere- 
mony is  attended  with  no  little  danger  to  the  Czar, 
who  carries  it  out  to  the  letter. 

Blessing  the  food  on  Holy  Saturday  is  another 
religious  function  that  resolves  itself  into  a  sort  of 
social  revel.  All  the  food  eaten  on  Easter  Day 
has  to  be  blessed  by  the  priest.  At  Moscow  the 
huge  riding-school  is  transformed  into  a  sort  of 
market,  or  bazaar,  where  the  various  foodstuffs 
are  set  out  to  be  blessed.  Easter  eggs  of  all  imagin- 
able colours,  a  peculiar  cake  called  kulich,  and  every 


244  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

conceivable  article  of  diet.  Every  house  in  Russia 
is  blessed  by  the  priest,  who  sprinkles  it  with  holy 
water.  He  comes  along  with  his  assistants  and 
inaugurates  a  Russian  house-warming.  Factories 
and  railway  stations  are  likewise  treated  in  this 
way. 

The  religion  of  the  Russian  does  not  permit  the 
use  of  graven  images.  But  the  ikon,  a  species  of 
picture  worked  in  metal  and  studded  with  jewels,  is 
substituted.  The  ikon  gets  far  more  veneration 
than  the  graven  image  seen  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
churches.  A  Russian  salutes  the  ikon  by  crossing 
himself  whenever  he  meets  it.  It  may  be  in  church, 
in  his  own  house,  by  the  roadside  in  a  shrine,  or 
being  carried  in  a  procession.  The  ikon  is  every- 
where in  Russia.  The  tavern  and  the  workshop 
each  has  its  ikon.  These  symbols  of  religion  are 
carried  to  the  sick,  as  they  are  supposed  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  healing  properties. 

The  Russian  Church  has  an  immense  hold  on  the 
people.  The  village  "  pop  "  is  a  man  of  poor  educa- 
tion, but  he  serves  his  purpose  in  dispensing  the 
sacraments  and  performing  the  rites  and  ceremonies, 
which  mean  a  good  deal  more  to  the  Russian  Christian 
than  an  English  mind  can  bring  itself  to  realise. 

The  services  are  immensely  long.  There  are 
no  seats  provided  for  the  congregation.  Worshippers 
either  stand  or  kneel.  The  singing  is  all  done  without 
musical  accompaniment,  but  it  is  generally  agreed 
to  be  unequalled  for  beauty.  All  the  priests  have 
fine  bass^voices.  The  churches  are  thronged  at 


A    LAND   OF   MANY   RELIGIONS     245 

festival-time.  In  spite  of  their  dazzling  splendour 
the  poorest  moudjik  is  at  home  in  them. 

Russia  is  the  land  of  strange  religions.  Religious 
sects  of  the  wildest  and  most  grotesque  kind  still 
flourish  in  certain  more  remote  parts  of  the  country. 
The  Raskol  (schism)  was  the  parent  of  these.  The 
Russian  always  goes  to  extremes.  The  old-time 
Raskolnik  went  to  the  stake  for  the  sake  of  the  spelling 
of  a  sacred  word,  and  suffered  imprisonment  before 
he  would  shave  his  beard,  which  act  was  held  to  be 
a  disfiguring  of  man  created  in  God's  image.  The 
descendants  of  these  martyrs  still  exist  and  regard 
the  State  as  the  Kingdom  of  Satan,  and  the  Ortho- 
dox Church  as  antichrist.  This  makes  the  bezpo- 
povtsy,  or  no-priest  sectarian,  a  dangerous  person 
politically,  and  somewhat  excuses  religious  persecu- 
tion in  his  case. 

The  Russian  freak-religionist  believes  that  the 
world  is  about  to  come  to  an  end.  He  further 
believes  that  the  sooner  he  is  out  of  the  world  the 
better,  and  with  appalling  logic  he  preaches  a  cult 
of  self-destruction.  A  sect  called  the  Philippoftsy 
regards  killing  as  an  act  of  mercy.  Suicide  is  con- 
sidered meritorious.  These  sects  were  known  in 
their  heyday,  which  is  happily  passed,  as  the 
"  Chokers  "  or  "  Clubbers."  They  not  only  gave  the 
coup  de  grace  to  their  parents,  relations,  and  friends, 
together  with  themselves,  but  they  elected  to  die 
by  the  most  unnecessarily  horrible  methods.  A 
peasant  not  so  very  long  ago  persuaded  a  number  of 
his  fellow-villagers  to  shut  themselves  up  with  him 


246  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

in  a  hut  which  had  been  prepared  for  the  purpose 
with  a  coating  of  pitch,  and  there  cremated  them- 
selves. They  left  a  message  attached  to  a  tree 
near-by  explaining  the  religious  nature  of  their 
action,  and  the  site  of  the  pyre  was  venerated  as  a 
holy  spot  by  the  villagers.  Drastic  measures  had 
to  be  taken  to  check  the  veneration  offered  to  the 
ashes  of  the  martyrs.  The  Philippoftsy  were  also 
given  to  starving  themselves  to  death.  It  is  estimated 
that  several  thousands  of  peasants  and  their  families 
perished  in  this  hideous  manner  towards  the  end 
of  the  last  century.  In  1870,  a  child  of  seven  years 
old  played  the  part  of  Isaac  to  his  father's  Abraham. 

As  opposed  to  the  last-named  sect  come  those 
who  believe  in  an  approaching  millennium.  They 
go  about,  either  prophesying  themselves  or  else 
seeking  for  the  prophet  in  the  forests  and  wilds. 
Prophets  and  seers  rise  up  on  every  hand  to  supply 
the  want.  Strangely  enough,  Napoleon  was  held 
by  this  sect  to  be  the  Messiah.  It  is  said  that  secret 
homage  is  still  paid  to  his  image  in  certain  quarters. 
There  was  a  print  representing  the  "  Apotheosis  of 
Napoleon,"  moving  in  the  clouds  among  his  marshals, 
that  used  to  be  found  in  the  cottages  of  these  people. 
The  legend  is  that  he  will  return  and  overthrow  the 
rule  of  Satan.  This  millennium  dream,  it  should 
be  added,  contains  many  mundane  items  in  regard 
to  the  non-payment  of  taxes,  more  land  and  the 
amelioration  of  labour.  Russian  realism  has  worked 
at  the  millennium  on  definite  material  lines. 

The    "  Tramps  "    or    "  Runners  "    are    another 


A   LAND   OF   MANY   RELIGIONS     247 

Russian  sect.  These  hold  the  doctrine  that  salvation 
lies  in  isolation.  Vagrancy  is  their  ideal  of  holiness. 
The  Strannik  forsakes  his  family  and  retires  to  the 
forest.  He  rejects  marriage.  The  passport,  as  a 
means  of  establishing  his  forsworn  identity,  is  re- 
pudiated, and  a  number  of  other  inconvenient  things 
go  in  the  great  renunciation.  He  is  at  liberty  to 
steal,  since  the  law  is  Satan's  institution  and  any 
active  protest  against  it  meritorious.  The  more 
perfect  Strannik  is  always  wandering.  After  his 
baptism — a  weird  ceremony  performed  in  the  woods 
at  night — he  is  bound  to  the  life  of  a  pilgrim.  Less 
strict  members  discreetly  put  off  baptism,  with 
which  begins  the  tramping  obligation,  until  death 
approaches.  They  then  are  removed  to  a  neighbour's 
house  so  as  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of  dying  away  from 
home  and  kindred.  In  the  old  days  the  Tramp  sect 
was  largely  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  runaway 
serfs  and  escaped  convicts.  A  religious  prejudice 
in  Russia  generally  has  a  political  justification.  A 
"  conscientious  objector  "  to  a  passport  is  a  truly 
Russian  convention.  When  told  to  produce  his  pass- 
port, he  displays  an  irritating  document  with  words 
to  this  effect :  "  They  who  persecute  thee  are  pre- 
paring for  themselves  a  place  in  Hell."  He  also  has 
secret  signs  and  tokens  by  which  he  communicates 
with  his  fellow  adepts.  The  Tramp  sect  is  by  no 
means  extinct  in  Russia  to-day. 

Even  less  savoury  are  the  so-called  mystical  sects. 
These  do  not  date  from  the  rupture  with  the  Estab- 
lished Church  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  are 


248  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

a  kind  of  agnostic  "  variation "  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Whereas  the  "  no-priest  "  fanatical  bodies 
reject  all  outward  forms  of  orthodoxy,  the  mystical 
sects,  to  all  overt  appearance,  conform  to  the  worship 
of  the  Church.  Their  peculiar  practices  are  carried 
on  in  private.  The  two  leading  mystical  sects  are  the 
Khlysty  and  the  Skoptsy.  The  Khlysty,  or  "  Flagel- 
lants," call  themselves  the  "People  of  God."  The 
other  is  a  nickname  given  them  by  the  Russians,  who 
rejoice  in  finding  nicknames  for  everyone.  No  one 
knows  where  their  heresy  originated.  They  have 
a  sacred  tradition  and  a  dogma  which  forbids  them 
writing  it  down.  They  worship  a  Messiah  who 
was  supposed  to  have  appeared  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  They  call  him  "  Lord  God  Sabbaoth." 
They  believe  that  men  may  become  divine,  and 
their  beliefs  lead  to  unspeakable  blasphemies.  Some 
of  the  women  have  received  the  title  "  goddess." 
Their  secret  rites  exercise  a  great  fascination  on  the 
mind  of  an  imaginative  people.  Hence  their  success. 
They  received  their  nickname  of  "  Flagellants " 
through  an  imported  custom  of  whipping  themselves 
into  a  state  of  ecstasy.  They  are  said  to  dance  like 
the  dervishes.  Their  meetings  take  place  at  night 
and  the  women  dress  in  white.  Hypnotism  and 
other  unwholesome  "  ways  and  means "  are  in- 
troduced. A  theoretical  asceticism  serves  as  a 
cover  for  something  very  different.  The  Skakimy, 
or  "  Jumpers,"  are  a  branch  of  this  sect.  They 
appeared  first  at  Petrograd,  and  are  one  of  the 
Western  innovations.  The  Protestant  Finns  took 


A   LAND   OF   MANY   RELIGIONS     249 

up  their  practices.  The  peculiarity  of  the  Jumpers 
is  obvious  from  their  name.  Instead  of  dancing 
they  jump.  They  hold  a  sort  of  ball,  and  dance  in 
couples.  To  the  outward  world  they  are  known 
for  their  sobriety. 

The  Skoptsy  hate  flesh  and  blood.  They  practise 
self-mutilation,  make  themselves  eunuchs,  and  call 
themselves  the  "  White  Doves."  By  worldly  pro- 
fession they  are  usually  money-changers.  Bankers 
are  glad  to  get  them  as  clerks  or  cashiers,  for  their 
worldly  ambitions  are  restricted.  Yet  the  members 
of  the  Skoptsy  are  famous  for  accumulating  large 
fortunes.  Some  of  them  are  millionaires.  Their 
fortunes  go  to  the  propagation  of  the  sect,  for  they 
leave  no  heirs.  The  "  Mutes  "  (Moltchalniki)  have 
a  recent  origin  in  Bessarabia.  They  take  a  vow  of 
silence,  and  stick  to  it  with  the  tenacity  of  the 
freak-religionist.  A  similar  sect  is  the  "  Non- 
Pray-ers,"  who,  preserving  the  doctrine  that  the  Deity 
can  only  be  worshipped  in  spirit  in  truly  Russian 
fashion,  reject  not  only  ikons  and  candles  and  such- 
like accessories,  but  all  forms  of  spoken  prayer. 

But  whether  he  be  Orthodox  or  wayward,  the 
Russian  is  always  religious. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

INTELLECTUAL   AND   ARTISTIC 

RUSSIAN  literature  is  essentially  democratic.  The 
story  is  often  used  as  the  cloak  to  cover  the  political 
reformer's  creed.  Most  of  Russia's  great  writers 
have  been  of  peasant  origin.  Tchekoff  was  the  son 
of  a  serf,  and  Gorki  of  a  working  man.  The  Russian 
looks  to  the  novelist  for  a  message.  Most  of  the 
characters  in  Russian  novels  represent  quite  common 
people.  Humdrum  life  is  depicted  as  a  protest 
against  the  restrictions  that  produce  it.  Life  is 
presented  without  comment,  as  in  the  plays.  The 
genius  of  Gogol  made  these  realistic  stories  classics. 
Dostoyevsky  also  rejoices  in  realism,  but  he  always 
finds  the  divine  spark  and  delights  in  digging  the 
good  out  of  the  most  hopeless  soil. 

The  Russian  reader  is  no  snob.  There  is  no 
class  existing  in  Russia  that  could  be  gratified  by 
meeting  with  titled  heroes  and  heroines.  No  Russian 
Family  Herald  exists.  So  the  Russians  adore 
Dickens.  M.  Vedensky,  who  translated  his  works, 
endeavoured  to  persuade  Dickens  to  go  out  and 
settle  in  Russia.  Gogol,  the  Russian  humorist, 
sacrificed  his  art  in  order  to  become  a  teacher. 
Tolstoi  deliberately  put  the  philosopher  and  reformer 
before  the  artist,  and  stuck  to  it. 
250 


INTELLECTUAL   AND    ARTISTIC     251 

The  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  Russian  novel 
of  to-day  are  generally  students  with  selfless  ideals, 
who  go  into  the  country  to  teach  the  poor.  The 
village  doctor  is  a  favourite  hero.  He  fights  epidemics, 
and  hygienic  principles  are  insinuated  into  the  reader's 
mind.  The  sombre  realists  like  to  tell  stories  about 
advanced  children  who  are  cribbed,  cabined  and 
confined  by  the  narrow  ideas  of  their  parents.  The 
fetish  of  family  life  is  attacked. 

Russian  authority  is  not  always  sure  that  litera- 
ture is  good  for  the  nation.  The  Little  Russian  poet 
Shevchenko  was  exiled  and  forbidden  to  do  any 
writing.  Dostoyevsky  was  sentenced  to  death  and 
reprieved  only  after  the  rifles  containing  the  fatal 
volley  had  been  pointed  at  his  breast.  Strangely 
enough,  that  episode  changed  the  victim's  view  on 
life  to  a  less  hopeless  and  bitter  one.  He  became 
the  upholder  of  the  religious  belief  of  the  peasant 
and  was  always  loyal  to  the  Church.  Even  Pushkin 
got  into  trouble.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  much  that  is  called  literature  in  Russia  is 
propaganda — all  novels  must  have  a  purpose — and 
that  therefore  a  good  deal  of  the  writing  is  intended 
to  create  discontent  amongst  the  people. 

The  fable  is  a  favourite  form  for  Russian  satire 
to  take.  The  Russians  have  a  fable-writer  as 
famous  as  ^Esop — Krylov.  This  genius  showed  up 
the  weaknesses  of  his  age  in  his  fables.  They  were 
written  in  rhyme,  and  have  been  translated  into 
twenty  different  languages.  They  are  full  of  scath- 
ing satire. 


252  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

The  purely  symbolic  and  mystic  writers  have  a 
large  following  in  Russia.  The  allegorical  style  is 
suited  to  the  Slav  mind,  and,  needless  to  say,  the 
Russians  love  fairy  tales.  The  peasantry  engage 
the  services  of  professional  tellers  of  fairy  tales 
who  come  and  sit  on  their  hearths  and  recount  these 
stories.  The  traditional  fairy  tale  was  thus  faithfully 
handed  down  by  word  of  mouth.  As  with  the  folk- 
songs and  epics,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  collect 
the  fairy  tales  of  the  Great  and  Little  Russians,  and 
of  other  Russians,  in  book  form.  Mr.  Post  Wheeler 
has  given  an  English  version  of  these.  As  he  observes, 
the  Russian  fairy  tale  is,  more  strictly  speaking,  a 
wonder  tale.  The  fairy  element  does  not  predominate. 
The  myths  of  the  most  ancient  of  the  Slav  people  are 
preserved  in  these  tales,  which  contain  in  a  most 
remarkable  way  all  the  characteristics  of  the  Russian 
of  to-day. 

In  philosophy  the  Russian  holds  a  prominent 
place.  He  thinks  clearly.  Yet  whilst  he  is  a  mystic, 
he  insists  on  realism  in  modern  fiction,  and  though 
he  is  an  idealist  he  is  acutely  concerned  with  modern 
economic  problems.  In  religion — apart  from  the 
freak  sects  described  in  the  previous  chapter — he  is  a 
conservative,  but  there  is  no  man  or  woman  who  is 
so  "  advanced  " — indeed  there  is  an  "  advanced  " 
thought,  followed  by  practice,  which  would  cause 
folks  of  other  lands,  who  consider  themselves  en- 
lightened, to  hoist  their  eyebrows.  The  Briton 
marvels  at  the  daring  nature  of  the  topics  selected 
for  conservation.  The  Russian  asks  his  gods  how 


INTELLECTUAL   AND   ARTISTIC     253 

an  intelligent  being  can  talk  about  the  weather.  The 
Russian  is  perplexed  that  the  man  who  places  a 
golliwog  in  front  of  his  motor  car,  and  wears  a  bog- 
wood  pig  on  his  watch-chain  should  call  Russia  the 
land  of  superstitions.  The  English  man  or  woman 
watches  with  some  superiority  a  Russian  cross  him- 
self sixty  times  in  succession,  and  promptly  takes 
precaution  by  touching  wood. 

The  Russian  newspaper  is  of  necessity  a  discreet 
publication.  The  existence  of  the  censor  excludes 
the  possibility  of  articles  criticising  passing  events. 
"  Articles  of  an  instructive  nature  take  the  place  of 
comments  on  the  passing  day,"  says  a  writer  with 
some  sarcasm.  Politics  and  social  questions  are 
dealt  with  in  the  feuilleton,  which,  under  the  cover 
of  fiction,  conveys  the  message  of  the  social  reformer 
or  political  malcontent.  The  censor  will  allow  you 
to  say  a  good  deal  in  a  feuilleton.  Newspapers  are 
less  ephemeral  than  in  England.  A  "  Football 
Edition  "  to  be  read  and  thrown  away  would  not 
be  understood.  In  some  cases  the  editor  who  has 
published  something  displeasing  to  the  authorities 
is  fined  ;  in  others  he  is  punished  by  not  being 
allowed  to  print  advertisements — an  ingenious 
method  of  suppressing  a  captious  publication. 

The  saying  "  Art  for  Art's  sake  "  has  been  changed 
by  the  Russian  patriot  to  "  Art  for  Russia's  sake." 
It  is  well  known  that  the  emancipation  of  the  serf 
was  brought  about  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Turgenev's  "  Notebook  of  a  Sportsman."  In  the 
same  way ;  it  was  a  famous  picture  painted  by  a 


254  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

patriotic  Russian  artist  depicting  the  horrors  of  the 
convicts'  tramp  to  Siberia  that  caused  the  then  Czar 
to  change  the  method  of  conveyance.  The  convicts 
now  travel  by  barge  or  by  rail.  In  the  pictures  of 
national  life  we  see  this  same  spirit  behind  the 
painter's  art.  "  I  must  know  my  Russia,"  he  seems 
to  say;  "I  must  understand  my  native  land!" 
Thus  the  Art  Gallery  at  Moscow  contains  the  whole 
case  for  the  peasant  on  canvas.  The  pictures  are 
all  painted  with  the  realism  that  enters  into  all 
Russian  art.  Apart  from  the  desire  to  reform  or  allevi- 
ate, the  Russian  painter  may  be  suspected  of  a  love 
of  the  "  gruesome  "  for  its  own  sake.  The  canvas 
showing  the  murder  of  his  son  by  Ivan  the  Terrible 
is  blood-curdling. 

The  ikon  is,  of  course,  the  earliest  example  of 
Russian  painting.  Here  the  idea  was,  obviously, 
"  Art  for  Heaven's  sake,"  and  art,  with  Russian 
perversity,  went  under  even  while  it  was  serving  as 
religion's  handmaid,  for  it  has  been  asserted  that 
Byzantine  art  was  made  ugly  of  deliberate  purpose 
to  counteract  the  worship  of  beauty  that  obtained 
in  Greece.  The  early  Orthodox  Church  certainly  gave 
out  a  legend  that  the  Saviour  Himself  possessed  no 
personal  beauty,  but  was  deformed.  The  ikon  came 
from  Constantinople.  It  came  in  its  accepted  form, 
if  not  actually  from  a  deliberate  intention  to  degrade 
art,  yet  from  an  inartistic  attempt  to  effect  a  com- 
promise with  the  Second  Commandment.  The 
Orthodox  Church  regards  an  image  as  idolatrous, 
being  a  graven  image.  The  holy  ikon  is  a  flat 


INTELLECTUAL   AND   ARTISTIC     255 

painting  on  metal,  overlaid  with  jewels  on  all  but 
the  face  and  hands,  so  that  the  effect  is  of  a  bas-relief. 
Every  vestige  of  art  entering  into  its  production  is 
guarded  against  by  the  fact  that  the  faces  of  the 
saints  portrayed  always  have  to  conform  to  a  con- 
ventional type.  Still  it  has  been  noticed  that 
Russia  possesses  to-day  an  ecclesiastical  painter, 
Victor  Vasnetzov,  who  has  executed  the  magnificent 
mural  paintings  at  the  cathedral  at  Kiev.  His 
pictures  of  Christ  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  are  being 
copied  by  the  ikon  painter.  This  artist  retains  the 
vivid  Byzantine  colouring  and  much  of  the  tradition. 
He  is  doing  great  things  for  Russian  church  art,  the 
most  conservative  art  in  the  world. 

The  Russians  are  inveterate  playgoers.  The 
plays  are  realistic.  Someone  has  said  that  both  in 
France  and  Russia  life  and  the  stage  agree.  "  In 
France  people  are  theatrical  in  real  life,  in  Russia 
they  think  sincerely  and  say  what  they  think." 
The  people  on  the  Russian  stage  say  what  the  Russian 
in  real  life  thinks  and  says.  The  plot  of  the  play  is 
always  simple — trivial,  or  even  non-existent.  The 
Granville-Barker  productions  among  us  come  nearest 
to  the  Russian  type.  One  is  held  by  the  intense 
truth  and  reality  of  what  is  being  depicted.  Dis- 
illusionment is  a  favourite  theme  with  Russian  play- 
wrights. The  Russian  does  not  go  to  the  play  in 
order  to  forget  the  actualities  of  life  as  the  Briton 
boasts  of  doing.  He  likes  Mr.  Arnold  Bennett's 
"  Honeymoon,"  which  has  been  produced  in  Warsaw, 
and  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw's  "  John  Bull's  Other  Island." 


256  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

There  is  no  record,  so  far  as  I  know,  of  "  Charley's 
Aunt  "  reaching  the  Russians.  A  Jewish  playwright, 
Yushievitch,  has  given  the  stage  a  picture  of  low 
Jewish  life  in  which  a  mother  compels  her  daughters 
to  support  the  family  at  the  cost  of  their  virtue. 
The  daughters  accept  the  situation  as  inevitable, 
and  so  does  the  audience.  The  wrongdoer  is  always 
condoned  by  Russian  largeness  of  heart.  The 
censor  takes  no  cognisance  of  the  morals  of  a  play. 
He  is  only  concerned  in  the  politics,  which  latter 
include  the  attitude  of  the  author  towards  orthodoxy. 

People's  theatres  are  a  feature  of  Russian  social 
life.  The  masses  are  admirably  catered  for  in  this 
respect.  Outside  Moscow,  for  instance,  at  "  The 
Hermitage,"  there  is  a  summer  theatre  mainly  for 
the  people's  use.  The  Narodny  Dom,  or  People's 
Palace,  and  intended  for  the  poorest  classes,  has  a 
theatre  attached.  I  went  to  an  opera  one  night  and 
got  an  excellent  seat  for  a  trifling  sum.  The  greatest 
singers  in  the  world  can  be  heard  here.  A  man  can 
take  his  wife  and  three  children  for  2s. 

The  performances  at  the  Artistic  Theatre  in 
Moscow  are  world-famous  for  their  excellence. 
"  The  Blue  Bird  "  was  first  produced  here.  Ibsen's 
plays  are  frequently  given.  It  is  worth  visiting 
Russia  to  see  one  of  these  performances. 

Grand  opera  can  be  heard  in  Petrograd  at  the 
Imperial  Theatre,  or  the  people's  open-air  theatre 
in  the  tea-gardens.  Tchaikovsky  is  the  favourite 
composer  in  both  places.  The  Russian  common 
people  have  a  sound  musical  judgment.  The  upper 


INTELLECTUAL  AND  ARTISTIC      257 

classes  at  Petrograd  continue  to  prefer  foreign  opera. 
The  figures  have  been  worked  out  at  a  hundred  and 
thirty-three  foreign  opera  performances  against  thirty- 
three  native  productions.  At  the  popular  theatres, 
native  talent  gets  a  better  chance,  which  looks  as 
though  the  revival  were  on  a  sound  basis  of  genuine 
appreciation,  and  not  of  fashionable  faddism.  The 
expenses  of  the  opera  at  Moscow  are  said  to  exceed 
the  takings  by  between  one  and  two  million  roubles 
annually.  The  deficit  is  made  up  by  the  State. 
Moscow  owes  much  to  Rubenstein  for  its  musical 
education.  Being  the  Muscovite  centre  it  does  not 
run  after  strange  musical  gods  like  cosmopolitan 
Petrograd.  The  Imperial  Opera  House  claims  to 
be,  after  the  Scala,  the  largest  in  the  world.  Every 
person  employed  is  a  Government  employee,  and 
receives  a  Government  pension.  Many  bass  voices 
are  brought  thither  from  the  ecclesiastical  seminaries. 
The  most  national  musical  entertainment  in 
Russia  is  that  given  by  the  gypsies — troupes  of 
male  and  female  singers  whose  services  are  chartered 
either  privately  or  in  the  restaurants.  The  large 
restaurants  outside  Moscow  are  the  places  to 
hear  the  gypsies.  They  give  their  performance 
in  a  private  room.  They  scorn  accessories.  The 
audience  sits  at  one  end,  and  the  performers  group 
themselves  at  the  other.  A  member  of  the  troupe 
leads  off,  and  a  wild  burst  of  song  ensues.  Gypsy 
music  is  said  to  intoxicate  native  listeners.  The 
Westerner  has  to  get  accustomed  to  it.  It  carries 
you  into  another  world.  It  has  all  the  Slav  melan- 


258  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

choly.  I  was  present  at  such  a  concert  one 
evening,  but  I  cannot  admit  I  was  fascinated. 

Concerts  are  well  patronised.  Russians  are  fond 
of  orchestral  music.  The  Russian  working  classes 
have  no  prejudice  against  classical  music  like  the 
British.  They  do  not  as  yet  suspect  that  they 
are  being  educated  when  good  music  is  offered  to  them 
— as  it  is  on  Sunday  evenings  at  Petrograd  when 
free  concerts  are  given  to  the  people  by  Count 
Shermetieff. 

More  gramophones  are  imported  into  Russia 
than  any  other  country.  They  are  to  be  found 
at  the  small  eating-houses  in  every  town,  and  they 
blare  out  from  the  cottages  of  the  well-to-do  Tartars 
in  remote  corners  of  the  Empire.  They  are  dis- 
placing the  native  musical  instruments,  just  as  the 
machine  is  ousting  the  hand-made  article.  The 
coarser  performances  are  those  of  a  type  imported 
from  Germany.  The  national  variety  entertain- 
ment is  much  freer  from  offence.  The  French 
music-hall  song  is  imperilling  the  existence  of  the 
national  folk-song.  The  modern  Russian  music-hall 
song  is  distinctly  risque.  The  factory  hand  prefers  it 
to  the  older  songs. 

The  ballet  in  Russia  is  an  Imperial  institution. 
Every  Russian  is  a  dancer  by  nature.  In  the  remote 
villages  one  may  see  boys  and  girls,  dancing  in 
exactly  the  same  way  as  the  trained  ballet-dancers — 
the  same  poses,  and  pantomime,  and  the  identical 
skips  and  leaps  that  figure  on  the  stage.  This 
spontaneity,  no  doubt,  gives  Russian  ballet  its  charm. 


INTELLECTUAL   AND   ARTISTIC     259 

But  although  Nature  plays  so  large  a  part,  no  dancer 
undergoes  more  arduous  training  than  the  Russian. 
The  State  sees  to  this.  Ballet  dancers  are  pro- 
duced in  the  same  way  as  military  officers.  Both 
are  educated  from  childhood  at  the  charges  of  the 
State.  Children  are  trained  in  the  Imperial  School 
of  Dancing  from  the  age  of  eight.  They  appear  at 
the  Imperial  Ballet  in  Petrograd  or  Moscow  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  ;  and  at  about  thirty- six  they  retire 
into  private  life  on  a  pension.  To  anyone  who  knows 
Russia,  it  is  interesting  to  discover  how  characteristic 
of  the  race  the  ballet  is.  In  its  way  it  is  as  character- 
istic as  the  Russian  literature.  In  the  first  place 
there  is  no  star  dancer.  Ensemble  is  the  effect 
aimed  at.  Each  member  of  the  corps  must  be  an 
artist.  The  art  of  pantomime,  of  gesture,  of  acting, 
must  be  fully  understood  by  each  dancer.  The 
ballet  stands  on  its  merits  as  a  whole.  It  is  the  spirit 
of  co-operation  in  evidence  in  art  as  in  everything 
else  Russian.  The  scenery  is  an  important  feature. 

The  male  dancer  has  always  existed  on  the 
Russian  stage.  It  is  typical  of  Russia's  independence 
of  the  trammels  of  convention  that  she  should 
consummate  the  art  of  the  dancer  in  the  mixed 
ballet.  Artistically  this  is  a  huge  improvement  on 
the  ballet  composed  of  women  only. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   MAN   ON   THE   LAND 

IN  Russia  you  are  constantly  changing  your  focus 
if  you  want  to  get  a  true  perspective.  You  have, 
however,  always  to  keep  fixed  in  mind  that  85  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  Russia  is  directly  asso- 
ciated with  and  dependent  on  the  land.  So  even 
when  you  have  been  amid  the  whirl  of  Moscow  manu- 
factories, have  settled  the  affairs  of  nations  in  Petro- 
grad  dining-rooms,  idled  at  Yalta  in  the  Crimea,  and 
found  that  Russian  society  folk  are  charming,  you 
really  know  very  little  of  Russia. 

The  real  Russia,  huge  and  inarticulate,  lies  away 
from  the  towns.  You  have  to  get  into  the  wheat 
region  of  Bessarabia  in  the  south,  into  the  forest 
lands  of  the  north,  to  travel  into  the  regions  beyond 
the  Volga  to  understand.  In  the  Russian  railway 
trains  you  jog  along,  for  many  hours,  through  sad 
woodlands,  with  the  same  type  of  trees,  without 
feature  or  variety,  apparently  stretching  thousands 
of  miles,  rather  like  an  endless  stretch  of  stage 
scenery,  twirling  round  and  round,  the  very  mono- 
tony blurring  the  fact  it  is  an  interminability  of 
the  same  landscape. 

Occasionally  there  is  a  break  in  the  woods,  and  a 
ragged  semi-cultivated  patch  is  revealed.  Now  and 
260 


THE    MAN    ON   THE    LAND          261 

then  a  glimpse  is  got  of  a  bulb-domed  church  over 
a  sprawling  village.  But  the  impression  you  obtain 
from  the  windows  of  a  leisurely  railway  train  is  that 
of  a  poorly-inhabited  land,  scarcely  touched  by 
cultivation.  Yet  it  is  on  those  wastes  that  Russia's 
millions  live,  work,  rear  families.  They  are  far 
from  railroads,  most  of  them  are  illiterate ;  they 
have  little  interest  in  the  outer  world.  But  they  are 
the  rock  on  which  Russia  rests. 

In  odd  corners  of  Russia  I  have  taken  pot-luck 
with  the  moudjik,  sat  at  his  rough  table,  and  with 
wooden  spoon  had  my  share  of  soup  out  of  the 
common  dish,  have  slept  on  the  floor  in  a  corner 
when  there  has  been  nothing  better,  and  through 
rainy  days  have  lain  in  his  rough  cart  whilst  trundling 
over  the  winding  earth  tracks  on  the  steppes.  I 
have  always  found  him  kindly,  patient,  devout — 
and  I  have  a  warm  place  in  my  heart  for  him. 

In  the  south  there  is  more  vegetation,  more  sun- 
shine, more  brightness  in  life  ;  but  a  Russian  village 
in  one  place  is  very  like  a  Russian  village  a  thousand 
miles  away.  There  is  one  very  wide  street,  grass- 
grown  in  places,  with  the  trail  made  by  vehicles 
wending  unevenly  down  it,  and  with  a  double  row 
of  single-storied  grey-log  houses  on  either  side. 
Sometimes  the  tin  roofs  are  painted  green  ;  some- 
times there  is  rough  decoration  in  the  woodwork  of  the 
eaves.  But  usually  there  is  a  melancholy  forlornness 
about  the  whole  place.  There  is  no  character,  no 
individuality  about  the  villages.  They  are  all  alike. 
Russian  towns  are  only  villages  on  a  big  scale.  There 


262  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

is  always  the  one  big  street,  and  the  place  is  of  some 
importance  when  its  buildings  rise  to  the  dignity  of 
double  stories.  The  famous  Nevski  in  Petrograd 
is  a  glorified  village  street. 

Nor  is  there  anything  attractive  about  the 
ordinary  village.  It  shows  no  pride.  There  is  no 
pleasant  approach  to  the  church.  Picturesque 
though  it  may  appear  at  a  distance,  its  whitewash  is 
very  patchy  on  close  acquaintance ;  chunks  of  its 
outer  plaster  covering  may  have  fallen  away,  leaving 
breaks  which  from  across  the  way  look  like  war 
maps.  There  may  be  some  flowers  in  the  garden  of 
the  cottage  ;  but  they  are  not  looked  after  and  weeds 
are  neglected,  and  the  general  appearance  is  that  of  a 
place  which  was  all  right  last  year,  but  has  been 
allowed  to  run  to  waste  since  then.  There  is  usually 
a  decrepitude  about  the  fencing,  so  cattle  may  wander 
from  a  foul  backyard  into  a  neighbour's  backyard 
without  hindrance.  The  small  farmer  agrees  the 
fence  ought  to  be  repaired  ;  much  damage  is  caused 
through  want  of  repairs  ;  but  he  does  not  repair  it. 
Interiors  vary  as  much  as  in  other  countries.  I 
have  been  in  log  cottages  spotlessly  clean,  but  I  have 
been  in  many  others. 

There  is  the  White  Russian,  the  Great  Russian  and 
the  Little  Russian.  Some  5,000,000  White  Russians 
— so  called,  because  of  the  white  broad-belted  over- 
coat worn  by  the  men  and  women — are  in  the  land 
by  the  river  Dnieper,  and  the  quietness  of  the 
vast  marshy  country  has  impregnated  the  very 
soul  of  the  peasant.  The  White  Russian  is  short  and 


THE    MAN    ON   THE    LAND          263 

stoutly  built ;  he  has  fine  features  and  light  eyes, 
but  he  is  rather  duller  than  his  neighbours.  The 
Great  Russian  lives  in  the  Central  provinces.  The 
dialect  spoken  is  said  to  be  the  purest  Slav.  He 
claims  to  be  the  stock  from  which  the  peoples  of  the 
other  Russias  have  sprung.  He  is  proud  in  being 
the  Slav  unmodified  by  southern  blood,  the  Muscovite, 
who  emancipated  Russia  from  the  Tartar  yoke.  Yet 
I  think  he  has  absorbed  some  Finnish  blood,  and 
this,  with  the  strength  that  comes  from  the  discipline 
of  the  northern  clime,  has  made  him  a  sturdier  type, 
morally  and  physically,  than  the  Little  Russian. 

The  Ukraine,  or  Little  Russia,  is  in  the  south. 
There  are  no  severe  winters,  and  the  region  is  ideal 
for  agriculture.  It  is  in  this  area,  famous  for  its 
black  earth,  where  grows  the  wheat  that  is  exported 
to  the  outer  world  from  Odessa.  Compared  with  the 
north,  a  village  in  Little  Russia  is  a  gay  place.  The 
villages,  however,  sprawl  more  than  in  Great  Russia. 
The  people  are  more  handsome  than  the  Great 
Russians.  Whilst  the  Finnish  strain  gives  a  certain 
melancholy  to  the  moudjik  of  Central  Russia,  the 
people  of  the  Ukraine  have  imbibed  a  Greek  and 
Tartar  element.  They  are  gay  and  sentimental, 
fond  of  bright  colours,  of  poetry  and  music.  They 
delight  in  love  Songs.  They  love  picturesque  em- 
broidered garments,  and  have  joy  in  the  adornment 
of  their  cottages. 

Little  Russians,  however,  have  the  reputation 
of  being  indolent.  They  are  leisurely  in  their  move- 
ments, and  they  speak  slowly.  In  will-power  the 


264  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

women  are  superior  to  the  men.  The  ladies  figure 
high  in  the  criminal  records,  having  a  short  way 
with  undesirable  husbands.  Husband-poisoning  was 
almost  a  native  industry  at  one  time.  The  married 
women  claim  Monday  as  their  own  day,  and  do  what 
they  like  on  it — a  kind  of  early- closing  arrangement. 
The  girls  choose  their  own  husbands. 

The  Little  Russian  is  sceptical  by  nature.  The 
literature  of  the  country  is  restrained  and  refined, 
and  the  bald  realism  of  the  Great  Russian  is  absent. 
The  aesthetic  side  of  the  Ukrainian  peasants  is  un- 
impeachable. They  show  it  in  their  dress,  in  art,  in 
their  shirking  of  large  unpleasant  issues.  Their 
songs  are  lyrical  and  romantic,  but  never  epic. 

To  study  the  real  Russian,  you  must  study  the 
peasant.  In  matters  of  detail  there  are  differences 
between  the  Great  and  the  Little  Russian,  but  in 
essentials  the  moudjik  is  the  same  throughout  the 
Empire.  I  have  run  across  people  in  Western 
Europe  who  believe  that  when  the  moudjiks  escaped 
from  serfdom  sixty  years  ago,  their  position  was 
no  better  improved  than  to  become  ill-paid  and 
harshly  treated  agricultural  labourers.  The  Russian 
peasant,  however,  is  a  landowner.  For  years  he 
held  land  on  the  communal  system  ;  but  as  that 
plan  did  not  work,  recent  land  legislation  has  pro- 
vided a  way  whereby  he  can  be  sole  owner.  His 
piece  of  land  may  be  small,  but  it  is  his.  He  may 
go  into  the  cities  to  be  a  droshki  driver,  or  into  a 
town  to  work  in  a  woollen  or  cotton  factory,  but 
at  periods  of  the  year  he  drops  his  urban  em- 


THE    MAN   ON   THE   LAND          265 

ployment  and  returns  to  his  village  to  attend  to  his 
farm. 

The  love  of  the  Russian  peasant  for  the  soil  is 
inalienable.  He  would  die  if  cooped  up  in  a  factory 
all  the  year  round,  and  it  is  the  call  of  the  land 
which  takes  him  away  from  the  towns  for  several 
months  each  year,  which  accounts  for  the  Russian 
mill  operatives  being  so  stalwart  and  healthy.  The 
village  belongs  to  the  peasant.  He  goes  to  the 
town  to  earn  a  little  money,  to  sell  the  articles  that 
he  manufactures  on  his  hearth  in  the  winter  months, 
or  he  makes  a  pilgrimage  to  the  town  that  possesses 
a  miraculous  ikon. 

The  tourist  hardly  ever  comes  in  contact  with 
real  peasant  life.  There  are  show  villages  round 
about  Petrograd  and  Moscow,  where  you  can  see  a 
real  isba  (cottage)  with  a  real  stove,  and  possibly 
someone  sleeping  on  the  top  of  it ;  but  the  genuine 
peasant  who  beats  his  wife  on  principle,  but  with  no 
ill-feeling,  who  prefers  the  witch-doctor  to  the 
feldscher,  believes  in  spells  and  incantations  and 
wood-nymphs,  and  runs  them  concurrently  with 
prayers  and  ikons,  is  only  to  be  found  farther  afield. 

The  universal  feature  of  the  peasant,  be  he  of 
Great  or  Little  Russia,  is  the  preference  for  com- 
munal life.  His  house  never  stands  alone.  There 
is  no  fence  to  divide  his  land  from  his  neighbour's, 
or  if  there  is  it  is  usually  in  disrepair.  The  peasant 
builds  his  own  isba  ;  it  takes  him  about  five  or  six 
weeks  to  do  so.  It  is  raised  from  the  generally 
marshy  ground,  and  the  lower  floor  is  used  as  a 


266  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

store-place  for  eatables.  The  cottage  usually  con- 
sists of  one  room,  about  a  quarter  of  the  space  in 
whichjisjfilled  with  a  large  stove  and  oven.  There 
may  or  may  not  be  a  chimney.  There  is  a  prejudice 
against  the  latter,  as  it  lets  the  heat  escape.  Where 
this  prejudice  is  respected  the  family  suffer  from  the 
effect  of  the  smoke  in  the  eyes — a  disease  leading 
to  partial  blindness  is  sometimes  set  up  in  this  way. 
The  stove  is  built  against  the  wall  adjoining  the 
cattle-shed,  and  so  gives  the  animals  the  benefit  of 
the  heat.  In  extra  cold  weather  the  latter  will  be 
invited  into  the  living-room  itself.  The  top  of  the 
stove  forms  a  sleeping  place  for  the  elderly  folk  and 
the  babies. 

The  peasant  always  has  a  large  family.  But 
more  than  half  the  children  born — 582  out  of  every 
1,000 — die  before  they  are  five  years  old.  Mortality 
amongst  male  children  is  greater — over  600  out  of 
1,000 — and  the  principle  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
maybe  accounts  for  the  fine  physique  of  the  peasant 
class.  Families  live  together  in  the  patriarchal 
fashion.  The  daughter-in-law  has  to  share  the 
manage  of  her  mother-in-law.  The  family  earnings 
are  "  pooled."  No  individual  male  member  would 
dream  of  claiming  his  wages  as  a  personal  possession. 
The  women,  on  the  contrary,  when  they  earn  a  little 
(it  is  only  a  little,  true  enough)  at  lace-making  or 
cotton-spinning,  are  allowed  to  keep  it  for  their 
individual  use. 

Wages  do  not  always  take  the  form  of  money 
payment.  The  harvest  is  gathered  in  on  the  land- 


THE    WINTER   FUEL 


THE    MAN    ON   THE    LAND          267 

owner's  estate  by  workers  who  take  a  percentage  of 
the  corn  or  hay  as  their  wage.  The  commune  acts 
in  the  same  way  in  dividing  up  the  hay  cut  on  the 
communal  land.  Money  does  not  come  into  the 
transaction.  As  an  agriculturist,  the  Russian 
moudjik  has  come  under  much  censure.  He  is 
charged  with  using  a  plough  similar  to  that  used  by 
Abraham.  He  certainly  favours  a  wooden  im- 
plement. The  Zemstvo  endeavours  to  provide  him 
with  a  more  scientific  agricultural  apparatus  ;  but 
the  moudjik  prefers  to  worry  along  with  his  old 
plough  to  getting  into  the  hands  of  the  village  usurer. 

This  latter  person  is  a  well-to-do  peasant,  who 
has  bought  a  piece  of  land  of  his  own,  and  who  very 
likely  owns  a  little  cotton  factory  and  makes  more 
money  that  way.  He  wears  his  trousers  outside  his 
boots  like  a  European,  and  his  wife  covers  her  head 
in  church  with  a  Sunday  bonnet.  He  is  known  as 
Kolak  or  "  fist,"  and  is  unpopular.  The  moudjik, 
we  are  told  by  his  Slavophile  friends,  has  no  prejudice 
against  an  iron  plough  as  such.  He  is  urged  to  buy 
his  own  land  and  compete  with  the  "  fist  "  or  become 
one,  says  the  Slavophile,  who  sees  an  incipient  capi- 
talist in  every  land-owning  peasant.  The  scientific 
agriculturist  who  pits  his  theoretical  knowledge 
against  the  practical  experience  of  the  tiller  of  the 
soil  sometimes  find  himself  at  a  disadvantage. 

Directly  a  factory  springs  up  in  the  vicinity,  a 
village  begins  to  become  civilised.  The  accordion, 
which  has  almost  ousted  the  native  guitar,  is  in  turn 
replaced  by  a  gramophone.  European  clothes  are 


268  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

worn.  The  old  folk-songs  give  place  to  a  very 
offensive  kind  of  music-hall  ditty.  Another  Western 
fashion  that  is  said  to  have  reached  even  the  remoter 
villages  is  the  use  of  the  rouge-pot !  I  travelled 
once  through  the  Baltic  provinces  to  the  agri- 
cultural districts,  where  some  of  the  village  girls 
carry  little  pots  of  rouge  to  work  to  heighten  their 
natural  colouring.  No  doubt  the  love  of  vivid 
colouring  in  everything,  from  the  cupola  of  a  church 
to  the  inside  of  a  wooden  spoon,  accounts  for  this 
improving  on  Nature. 

The  moudjik  is  a  mystic  with  a  strong  practical 
strain.  He  is  humane  and  large  in  his  sympathies. 
The  peasants  are  curiously  like  the  Irish  in  some 
respects.  Their  habit  of  interpolating  such  phrases 
as  "  Glory  be  to  God  !  "  into  their  speech  is  remark- 
able in  two  absolutely  isolated  races.  Their  fairy 
system  is  also  on  similar  lines.  The  Russian  peasant 
can  be  as  winning  in  "  the  way  he  has  with  him  " 
as  the  Irishman. 

The  Russian  diminutive  as  a  term  of  respectful 
affection  is  very  attractive.  Terms  of  endearment 
are  used  with  the  utmost  freedom.  A  village  sexton 
addressed  a  lady  tourist  on  one  occasion  as  galub- 
tchik,  "  dear  little  dove."  The  Tartar,  selling  his 
goods  in  the  bazaar,  will  call  the  lady  he  hopes  to 
extract  his  price  from,  "  a  pearl."  In  return  he 
is  flattered  if  she  addresses  him  as  "  prince."  The 
Petrograd  cabby  will  sometimes  remind  one  that  he 
is  really  a  moudjik  by  an  unexpected  term  of  en- 
dearment. 


THE    MAN   ON    THE    LAND          269 

The  peasant  out  in  the  fields  is  a  picturesque 
object.  He  wears  the  native  dress  in  its  entirety, 
a  bright-coloured  cotton  shirt,  generally  red,  print 
trousers  with  strips  of  cloth  wound  round  them 
puttee  fashion,  and  shoes  made  of  the  bark  of  trees. 
His  shirt  is  worn  outside  the  trousers,  and  is  gathered 
in  at  the  waist  by  a  stout  belt.  He  wears  either  a 
round  felt  or  fur  cap,  or  a  peaked  one  of  the 
pancake  type.  In  the  winter  top-boots  of  felt  are 
worn  over  the  shoes.  Top-boots  are  also  donned  on 
holidays.  The  tulup,  or  sheepskin  coat,  comes  out 
in  the  winter.  The  men  and  women  both  wear  it, 
the  wool  inside  and  the  leather  on  the  outside.  It 
is  a  sturdy  garment.  Yet  another  coat  surmounts 
the  tulup  when  the  peasant  drives  his  sledge,  and  a 
belt  encircles  the  mass  of  garments  at  the  spot  where 
the  waist  is  faintly  indicated,  or  rather  a  waist  is 
more  or  less  induced  by  a  terrific  tugging  and  pulling 
in  of  the  belt. 

The  moudjik  is  a  fine  fellow,  with  a  natural  dignity 
of  bearing.  He  wears  his  hair  long  and  hanging  like 
a  curtain  ;  the  nape  of  the  neck  is  shaved  to  produce 
this  effect.  He  parts  his  hair  in  the  middle.  "  A 
Russian  murderer,"  remarks  a  certain  commentator, 
"  looks  as  gentle  as  an  angel  or  an  apostle."  The 
general  result  is  a  benevolent  appearance.  He 
possesses  an  axe  with  which  he  is  said  to  be  able 
to  do  everything — build  his  house,  fell  his  timber, 
carve  his  ornaments,  or  kill  his  wife.  The  moudjik, 
however,  is  not  a  brute.  His  pity  and  compassion  for 
suffering  is  proverbial.  Nowhere  do  beggars  flourish 


27o  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

as  they  do  in  Russia.  The  poorest  folk  share  their 
mite  with  the  palpably  unworthy.  To  him  the  criminal 
is  an  "  unfortunate."  Prisoners  on  their  way  to 
Siberia  receive  a  constant  supply  of  food  and  alms 
from  the  peasantry.  It  is  not  only  the  holy  pilgrim 
— "  God's  man  " — who  benefits  by  their  benevolence. 
Russian  charity  is  genuine  and  heart-whole. 

The  peasant  women  wear  cotton  garments,  for- 
merly, at  any  rate,  of  their  own  spinning.  They  go 
barefoot  in  the  summer,  but  cover  the  head  out  of 
doors  with  a  kerchief.  The  married  women  always 
cover  the  head  ;  the  girls  may  substitute  ribbon  or 
wreaths  of  flowers.  When  a  peasant  woman  goes  into 
town  in  the  summer-time,  she  carries  her  boots  with  her 
and  puts  them  on  when  the  cobblestone  roads  make 
it  necessary.  The  woman  is  quite  as  good  a  field 
worker  as  the  man.  She  takes  the  baby  and  the 
cradle  with  her — the  latter  is  a  kind  of  hammock  with 
a  spiral  spring  by  means  of  which  it  is  suspended 
from  the  shafts  of  the  plough.  Harvest  time  is 
called  stradu,  which  means  suffering.  The  whole 
night  as  well  as  the  day  is  often  spent  in  gathering 
in  the  harvest.  The  harvest  saint,  St.  Ilya,  always 
sends  a  thunderstorm  on  his  day,  July  20th,  which 
occurs  during  the  harvesting.  The  man  will  go  to 
market  with  the  farm  produce,  while  his  wife  labours 
in  the  fields.  She  is  sometimes  yoked  with  the  cow. 
The  moudjik  has  a  proverb,  "  Beat  your  wife  as 
you  beat  your  fur,  and  love  her  with  all  your  soul  !  " 
The  peasant  girl  will  do  anything  rather  than  remain 
without  a  husband  to  carry  out  this  principle.  She 


THE    FIRST    OF    THE    HARVEST 


THE    MAN    ON   THE    LAND          271 

will  relinquish  the  really  good  wage  that  she  may 
be  earning  at  lace-work  for  matrimony,  the  plough, 
the  stick,  and  the  love  of  her  husband's  soul. 

The  newly-married  sons  or  daughters  come  to 
live  under  the  family  roof,  so  there  are  often  thirty 
or  forty  members  who  have  their  work  at  home  or 
abroad  planned  out  by  the  bolshak  (head  of  the 
family)  and  have  to  give  him  all  or  part  of  their 
earnings.  His  wife  looks  after  the  female  section, 
and  it  can  be  imagined  she  has  the  harder  task  in 
managing  the  daughters  and  daughters-in-law.  How- 
ever, the  bolshak  has  one  privilege  which  no  one 
envies :  he  has  to  pay  all  the  taxes  and  may  be  de- 
posed, and  his  son  put  in  his  stead  by  the  authorities. 
Moreover,  he  may  not  sell  his  house,  or  go  elsewhere 
without  the  consent  of  his  family.  A  husband  bring- 
ing complaint  against  his  wife  has  rather  a  hard 
lot,  for  though  she  is  punished  for  disobedience,  he 
is  punished  for  not  making  himself  obeyed. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

POTENTIALITIES 

ONE  of  these  days  Russia  may  give  birth  to  a  man 
who  can  boom  it  after  the  manner  of  an  emigration 
agent  for  an  oversea  section  of  the  British  Empire. 
Its  plains  capable  of  raising  food  are  enormous. 
Except  for  the  Ural  Mountains  separating  Siberia 
from  Russia,  and  the  Caucasus  range  in  the  south, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  hill  in  all  the  Czar's 
dominions  much  higher  than  a  thousand  feet.  Then 
there  are  illimitable  forests.  Russia  has  many  rivers 
navigable  for  thousands  of  miles.  The  forest  lands 
are  in  the  north,  and  the  rich  black  loam  lands 
unsurpassed  for  wheat  are  in  the  south  within  reach 
of  the  Black  Sea. 

Siberia  is  another  Canada.  It  has  the  same 
climate.  It  has  the  same  capabilities.  Nature  has 
blessed  Russia,  and  the  marvel  is  that  its  riches, 
chiefly  agricultural,  have  not  been  better  developed. 
The  simplest  explanation  is  that  the  Russians  have 
lacked  the  virility  which  must  accompany  the 
rousing  of  a  continent  into  fertility.  There  are 
over  eight  and  a  half  million  square  miles  of  territory 
occupied  by  over  163,000,000  people,  120,000,000 
of  them  of  white  skin,  and,  notwithstanding  an 
awful  infant  mortality,  the  population  is  increasing 
272 


INTERIOR   OF    A   RUSSIAN    COTTAGE 


POTENTIALITIES  273 

by  over  a  million  a  year.  The  average  to  the  square 
mile  is  fifteen  inhabitants,  which  is  sparse. 

The  largest  landowner  is  the  State,  and  the 
property  is  mostly  in  the  north  and  chiefly  forest. 
Since  the  liberation  of  the  peasant  in  1861,  the  plot 
of  ground  allotted  to  each  peasant  has  shrunk  from 
4'8  desyatins  to  2'6  desyatins  owing  to  the  increase  of 
population.  (A  desyatin  is  about  2|  acres.)  Over  and 
above  the  131,000,000  desyatins  (327,500,000  acres) 
of  land  allotted  to  the  peasants  and  owned  by  the 
village  communities,  Russia  has  93,000,000  desyatins 
(232,500,000  acres)  of  land  which  is  owned  by  private 
individuals.  Of  this,  73,000,000  desyatins  (182,500,000 
acres)  belong  to  the  nobility.  At  the  present  moment 
half  the  land  owned  by  individuals,  as  well  as  half 
of  that  belonging  to  the  State,  is  let  to  the  peasants. 
In  fact,  the  entire  acreage  rented  by  the  peasants 
amounts  to  some  40,000,000  desyatins  (100,000,000 
acres). 

Gradually  Crown  lands  are  being  relinquished, 
and,  under  the  administration  of  the  Zemstvos,  being 
sold  on  easy  terms  to  the  peasantry.  As  to  how 
much  has  recently  passed  I  can  secure  no  statistics, 
but  it  is  a  fair  assumption  that  much  has  gone  over ; 
and  I  found  a  strong  belief  in  Russia  that  all  the 
men  who  have  been  soldiering  will  be  rewarded  with 
a  gift  of  Crown  land,  the  accepted  amount  being  four 
desyatins.  If  this  be  so,  it  will  hardly  be  Crown  land 
in  the  north  which  will  be  given,  for  it  is  forest  or 
swamp,  and  some  means  will  surely  be  found  to 
shift  much  of  the  population  to  the  east  of  the  Urals, 


274  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

where  in  Siberia  there  is  plenty  of  available  free 
land  ;  confined  to  Russia  proper  means  a  large 
peasant  class  without  land,  and  for  a  long  while  it 
will  be  impossible  to  use  the  surplus  population  in 
industrial  pursuits.  So  the  colonisation  of  Siberia 
seems  to  be  the  readiest  means  to  meet  the  land 
hunger  which  nearly  every  peasant  has  in  his  heart. 
Besides,  the  Russian  farmer  needs  much  training 
in  agriculture  before  he  gets  the  same  results  out 
of  the  land  that  the  Canadian  farmer  succeeds  in 
doing. 

But  see  what  is  being  accomplished.  Take 
the  butter  industry  of  Siberia — a  new  business. 
Twenty  years  ago,  before  the  laying  down  of  the 
Trans-Siberian  Railway,  the  territory  did  not  export 
a  pound  of  butter.  Now  the  value  of  the  butter 
exported  is  twice  that  of  the  wheat  exported.  At 
Omsk  there  are  over  twenty  great  factories,  and  I 
remember  when  I  was  there  being  much  impressed 
with  the  enterprise  of  the  Danes,  who  were  the  first 
in  the  field.  This  butter  trade  has  grown  to  such 
an  extent  that  to  handle  the  traffic  the  railway — in 
normal  times — had  to  provide  1,080  refrigerator  cars, 
each  of  which  was  reckoned  to  carry  fifteen  tons 
each.  A  weekly  service  of  seven  trains  was  arranged 
for,  and  each  train  had  a  full  complement  of  some 
thirty-five  cars.  These  carried  their  freights  to  Petro- 
grad,  Riga  and  other  Baltic  ports,  whence  steamships 
carried  the  butter  to  England.  It  was  not  an  infre- 
quent event  for  a  thousand  tons  of  Siberian  butter 
to  be  delivered  in  London  in  a  single  week.  Each 


POTENTIALITIES  275 

year  Siberia  sent  west  not  far  short  of  100,000,000  Ibs. 
of  butter.  Omsk,  a  thriving  town,  is  the  centre  of 
two  thousand  square  miles  of  as  fine  grazing  ground 
as  may  be  found  in  any  of  the  new  countries. 

In  his  valuable  handbook  on  Russian  commercial 
and  industrial  conditions,  Mr.  John  H.  Snodgrass 
says  Russia's  pre-eminence  among  the  nations  of  the 
world  as  the  chief  possessor  of  timber  resources  must 
remain  unquestioned.  An  almost  unthinkable  fact  is 
that  more  than  two-thirds  of  them,  at  present,  remain 
an  unknown  quantity.  The  Russian  Empire  covers 
about  one-seventh  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  of 
it  some  statistics  allege  at  least  39  per  cent,  is  under 
forests  which  aggregate  a  total  of  549,800,000  acres, 
this  exclusive  of  Siberia  where  the  forest  areas  remain 
unsurveyed  ;  but  a  rough  estimate  has  been  made 
which  makes  an  addition  to  the  formidable  total 
above  stated  of  465,000,000  acres.  Such  an  asset 
against  her  future  requirements  as  Russia's  forests  is 
something  to  dream  about.  The  State  forests  in  1907 
supplied  1,286,560,000  cubic  feet  of  lumber,  for  which 
the  Department  of  Forestry  received  into  its  coffers 
£6,300,000. 

Central  Russian  forests  have  been  the  play- 
ground of  several  generations  of  lumbermen,  so 
there  are  signs  of  exhaustion,  Mr.  Snodgrass  says. 
In  consequence  the  forests  of  Northern  Russia  are 
drawing  attention.  More  than  ever,  nowadays,  the 
lumber  companies  are  attracted  by  the  advantages 
of  co-operation  for  a  proper  control  which  shall  regu- 
late the  trade.  The  Finns  have  some  time  since 


276  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

established  such  a  means  of  control.  In  the  Siberian 
valleys  is  an  area  of  forest-land  which  is  said  to  cover 
2,000,000  square  miles  ;  of  this  only  some  400,000 
miles  can,  for  various  reasons,  be  said  to  be  eligible 
for  timbering,  but  local  calculations,  allowing 
forty-five  merchantable  trees  to  the  acre,  would  give 
11,520,000,000  trees.  The  time  for  these  trees  to 
mature  is  placed  at  100  years.  That  would  give 
115,200,000  trees  suitable  for  the  saw  and  axe  brigade 
to  utilise  per  annum  with  scarce  a  semblance  of 
disafforestation  and  a  well  ordered  reafforestation 
system  kept  properly  in  working  order.  The  vast 
navigable  system  of  the  Amur — 8,000  miles — with 
its  tributaries  amounts  to  between  30,000  and  35,000 
miles,  and  for  the  most  part  these  waterways  are 
considered  to  have  sufficient  floating  capacity  for 
the  activities  of  the  lumbermen.  The  lumber 
wealth  of  the  Amur  is  just  beginning  to  be  tapped. 
There  are  already  established  some  few  sawmills 
between  Lake  Kisi  and  Khabarovsk,  but  they  are 
only  small  concerns.  In  1912,  the  value  of  the 
exports  of  raw  and  partly  manufactured  wood  from 
European  Russia  amounted  to  about  £15,700,000. 

Russia  produces  a  high  quality  leather.  It  is 
interesting  that  until  a  few  years  ago  the  business 
was  in  the  hands  of  American  manufacturers,  but  some 
of  these  have  been  ousted  by  natives  taking  up  the 
business.  Still  the  Russian  business  is  rather  of  a 
peddling  kind,  and  has  not  yet  developed  that  large 
scope  in  operations  which  can  be  found  in  other 
countries,  though  in  one  district  some  ten  thousand 


POTENTIALITIES  277 

shoemakers  turn  out  about  three  million  pairs  of 
shoes  a  year.  The  fact  remains  that  the  demand  for 
native  leather  is  greater  than  the  native  market  can 
supply,  and  foreign  makers,  American  and  French 
chiefly,  come  forward. 

I  have  already  referred  to  Russia's  cotton  trade, 
expanding  in  an  enormous  way.  More  than  half  of 
Russia's  export  of  cotton  goods  is  sent  to  Persia, 
to  the  displacement  of  British  goods.  The  possi- 
bilities of  the  cotton  trade  developing  in  the  Far  East 
are  enormous.  Then  there  is  the  possibility  of  getting 
exports  out  by  the  rivers  which  empty  themselves 
into  the  northern  seas — though  Russia  is  the  most 
unfortunate  of  countries  in  the  very  few  ports  she 
has  which  are  free  from  ice  all  the  year  round.  Her 
railway  system  is  being  enormously  enlarged,  and 
whilst  advancement  is  not  made  with  the  celerity 
in  some  other  countries — though  in  Manchuria  some 
years  ago  I  saw  Russian  engineers  laying  down  a 
line  at  three  miles  a  day — one  must  appreciate  the 
thousands  of  miles  of  line  already  laid,  much  of  it 
through  the  most  thinly  populated  districts.  These 
new  ways  bring  population,  and  every  possible  in- 
ducement to  get  families  settled  in  Siberia  is  made. 
Every  man  gets  a  minimum  of  40'5  acres  and  200 
roubles  in  cash,  which  he  may  repay  by  easy  in- 
stalments without  interest.  Siberia,  like  Russia 
generally,  is  a  country  of  credit  trading.  So  the 
Government  has  established  all  over  the  country 
peasant  credit  associations  where  everything  in  the 
way  of  tools  and  machinery  can  be  bought ;  and 


278  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

has  also  started  inspectors,  hospitals,  schools,  etc., 
to  mend  social  conditions.  Most  settlers  migrate 
into  the  west,  and  a  sudden  boom  in  gold  or  oil  may 
cause  a  budding  village  to  exfoliate  into  a  busy 
township.  In  1903,  there  was  one  such  village,  Obi, 
with  a  population  of  100  and  a  very  ill-kept  single 
street.  It  is  now  Novo-Nikolayevsk,  with  a  thriving 
butter  industry  and  a  population  numbering  some 
65,000. 

Great  ironworks  are  prosperous  in  the  Rostov 
district.  Mighty  oil-fields  are  being  worked  at 
Baku  on  the  Caspian  Sea.  In  the  mountain  lands 
bordering  China  there  are  gold  mines.  There  are 
illimitable  possibilities  in  the  matter  of  cattle,  sheep 
and  horse-rearing.  Russia's  wheat  area  can  be  en- 
larged. In  natural  products  she  is  able  to  stand  alone. 
She,  however,  has  a  long  way  to  travel  before  she 
can  claim  to  be  putting  her  country  to  fullest  ad- 
vantage. 

She  is  sending  much  to  foreign  countries  and 
getting  rich.  But  comparatively  the  value  of  her 
exports  is  decreasing.  Take  the  relative  position, 
very  significant,  of  the  two  countries  Britain  and 
Germany  in  one  year,  1912.  The  United  Kingdom 
received  from  Russia  the  value  of  327,200,000  roubles 
and  sent  the  value  of  139,250,000.  So  we  are  buying 
more  from  Russia  than  Russia  bought  from  us.  It 
was  the  other  way  about  with  Germany,  for  whilst 
Russia  sent  her  neighbour  the  value  of  453,700,000 
roubles,  she  bought  from  Germany  the  value  of 
519,114,000  roubles. 


POTENTIALITIES  279 

Russia,  however,  is  striving  toward  making  goods 
for  herself  and  is  going  ahead.  Between  the  years 
1900  and  1910,  the  number  of  additional  factories 
increased  their  power  by  about  75  per  cent.,  which 
means  an  increase  in  the  production  by  150  per  cent. 
This  increase  in  the  number  of  factories  has  been  in 
connection  with  the  working  up  of  natural  products, 
such  as  flour-mills,  saw-mills,  breweries,  etc.  In 
the  Tomsk  and  Tobolsk  governments,  the  flour- 
milling  and  flour  industry  forms  60  per  cent,  and 
55  per  cent,  respectively  of  the  total  trade  for  these 
governments. 

But  Russia,  whilst  seeing  to  her  industrial 
advancement,  will  want  help  from  other  countries. 
To  get  the  full  benefit  of  foreign  enterprise  she  will 
have  to  slacken  some  of  her  restrictive  laws  against 
foreigners  ;  she  will  have  to  provide  that  they  get 
quicker  justice  in  the  courts ;  she  will  have  to  stop 
her  irritating  supervision  of  every  petty  alteration 
in  construction  and  development.  Sir  Albert  Spicer, 
one  of  London's  chief  commercial  men,  has  written : 
"  Whether  it  be  the  construction  of  grain  elevators, 
the  installation  of  municipal  services,  industrial 
machinery  or  bringing  English  capital  into  the  open- 
ing-up  of  oil  lands,  some  pretext  has  been  found 
for  interposing  a  Russian  bureaucratic  commission, 
with  the  powers  of  a  punitive  court,  to  find  fault  with 
the  work,  or  dispute  interpretation  of  contracts,  a  prac- 
tice not  set  at  work  until  the  English  firms  have  sunk 
serious  amounts  of  capital  and  technical  expenditure 
.  .  .  and  they  are  now  faced  with  heavy  loss,  these 


280  RUSSIA    OF    TO-DAY 

facts  deciding  the  majority   of  English  houses  to 
close  down  and  withdraw  from  the  country." 

Blessed  as  she  is  by  Nature,  it  lies  with  Russia 
herself  to  bring  her  potentialities  into  further 
activity.  The  aid  of  the  foreigner  will  count  for  a 
great  deal;  but  it  must  be  her  own  brains  and  her 
own  sinews  which  will  provide  the  prosperity  that 
lies  before  her. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

WHAT   OF   THE    FUTURE  ? 

WHAT  is  going  to  happen  to  Russia,  not  diplomatically, 
not  in  a  territorial  sense,  but  internally,  after  the 
war  ?  That  is  a  question  which  outsiders  sometimes 
ask  and  which  Russians  are  constantly  asking  them- 
selves. 

Russia,  like  her  Allies,  smothered  her  domestic 
quarrels  the  day  war  came.  Germany  assumed  that 
trouble  for  the  Russian  Government  meant  the 
opportunity  of  the  Revolutionary  party  and  that 
rebellion  would  break  loose.  But  Germany  mis- 
calculated the  temper  of  Russia,  just  as  she  was 
completely  in  error  concerning  what  would  happen 
to  the  British  Empire. 

Instead  of  the  war  provoking  the  dissentionists 
to  clamour  for  changes  in  administration  it  brought 
the  whole  Revolutionary  party  into  line  with  the 
Government.  Many  of  these  men  had  been  nurtured 
on  German  Socialism  of  the  Karl  Marx  kind;  they 
had  been  much  under  the  influence  of  German  litera- 
ture. But  they  were  Russians  first  and  Socialists 
second.  Besides,  without  in  any  way  dropping  their 
principles,  they  knew  that  the  triumph  of  Prussianism 
would  in  no  way  facilitate  the  attainment  of  their 
ideal.  Indeed,  there  could  be  no  two  more  dissimilar 
281 


282  RUSSIA    OF    TO-DAY 

men  than  the  cast-iron,  inflexible  Prussian  and  the 
dreamy,  poetical  Slav.  If  Russia  was  to  be  re- 
generated, it  was  not  to  be  through  the  agency  of 
Teutonic  culture.  Patriotism,  the  love  of  "  Holy 
Russia,"  was  the  chief  factor,  but  that  Great 
Britain  was  Russia's  ally  was  also  a  great  factor. 

British  political  institutions  have  long  been  the 
admiration  of  enlightened  Russians.  There  are  many 
men  who  admire  them  and  yet  feel  they  are  not  at 
all  adapted  to  the  Slav  temperament.  The  masses 
are  not  yet  sufficiently  educated  to  understand 
politics  ;  they  are  too  easily  led  to  be  given  authority 
in  determining  the  history  of  the  country.  I  have 
never  met  anyone  who  championed  the  existing 
system  of  government  as  right  in  itself.  All  that 
has  been  pleaded  is  that  with  its  defects,  so  remote 
from  Western  principles,  it  is  the  best  form  of  govern- 
ment for  a  country  in  a  retarded  state  of  develop- 
ment like  Russia.  And  enthusiast  though  I  am  for 
the  Western  system  of  government,  I  know  Russia 
sufficiently  well  to  realise  that  if  she  were  suddenly 
furnished  with  a  brand  new  Constitution,  after  the 
British  model,  she  would  soon  be  in  the  throes  of 
tragedy.  The  progress  of  a  country  should  be  an 
evolution  of  its  own  characteristics  ;  it  should  not  be 
dependent  on  imitating  neighbours.  It  is  not  my 
business  to  be  an  apologist ;  but  I  have  long  dis- 
missed from  my  mind  the  belief  that  the  present 
method  of  government  is  maintained  because  a 
powerful  circle  get  enormous  and  pecuniary  advan- 
tages. For  all  I  know  to  the  contrary,  all  the  stories 


WHAT    OF   THE    FUTURE?  283 

of  harsh  treatment  toward  men  and  women  who 
express  liberal  views  may  be  perfectly  true.  But 
the  idea  of  Russian  government  is  paternal ;  and 
so  long  as  the  citizen  accepts  this  he  never  has  reason 
to  know  the  power  of  the  autocracy. 

The  point  is,  that  when  the  war  came,  the  people 
of  advanced  political  thought  were  as  eager  as  the 
Grand  Duke  Nicholas  to  smite  the  Germans.  So  the 
old  propaganda  died  down.  Men  in  exile  wrote 
championing  the  cause  of  Russia.  Exiles  broke 
through  the  prohibition  to  return  to  Russia  and  did 
actually  return,  braving  imprisonment,  but  eager 
to  be  of  service  to  Russia.  They  were  zealous  their 
country  should  be  victorious.  But  they  have  never 
made  any  secret  that  they  let  their  thoughts  travel 
far  beyond  the  ultimate  victory  over  Germany.  The 
old  antagonism  to  the  Government  having  died  away, 
the  consequence  was  that  the  Government  slacked  in 
vigilance,  and  for  a  year  past  there  has  been  a  freer 
public  opinion  than  ever  there  has  been  in  the  annals 
of  Russia. 

When  one  compares  the  talk  of  ten  years  ago 
with  that  of  to-day  one  is  literally  amazed.  The 
Press  is  more  frank  than  ever  it  was.  Criticism  of 
public  men,  Ministers — dangerous  a  few  years  back 
— is  now  as  open  as  in  England.  Public  meetings 
calling  for  the  dismissal  of  Ministers  have  been  held. 
Russia  has  had  duffer  Ministers  whose  incom- 
petence has  been  proved  since  the  war,  and  they  have 
been  sent  about  their  personal  business.  They  were 
dismissed  because  the  Czar  discovered  them  to  be 


284  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

incompetent.  But  there  is  a  mass  of  conviction, 
especially  amongst  the  newspaper-reading  middle- 
classes,  that  the  incompetents  have  been  removed 
under  the  pressure  of  public  opinion.  Therefore  for 
the  first  time,  Russia  believes  it  has  found  a  new 
weapon  of  influence,  not  so  drastic  as  some  of  the 
old  arguments  but  as  effective,  namely  the  exercise 
of  public  opinion  which  is  recognised  by  the  Czar  and 
his  advisers.  You  cannot  grip  anything  tangible,  but 
you  cannot  escape  the  consciousness  that  "  public 
opinion  "  has  come  to  stay.  Folk  are  to  be  allowed 
to  say  what  they  think. 

A  belief  prevails  that  with  the  close  of  the  war 
Russia  will  have  a  re-birth.  She  will  cast  off  her 
sluggishness.  She  will  bestir  herself  in  the  science 
of  industry  and  commerce,  and  not  rely  so  much 
for  her  necessaries  upon  the  foreigner.  The  war 
has  taught  Russia  that  there  is  danger  in  being  a 
commercial  colony  of  Germany,  and  the  temper  of  the 
people  is  "  Never  again  !  "  I  do  not  think  Russia  will 
maintain  her  present  determination,  but  so  long  as 
the  determination  exists  there  is  industrial  and 
manufacturing  progress. 

Enormous  advance  has  been  made  within  recent 
years  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  small  land- 
holder, more  proportionate  advance  than  in  any  other 
land,  though  the  great  improvement  is  not  recognised 
by  outsiders.  Frankly,  no  government  has  done  so 
much  in  recent  times  to  give  the  peasantry  access  to 
the  land.  The  Duma,  though  without  much  power 
in  itself,  has  enormous  power  in  the  ventilation  of 


A   CAPTURED   GERMAN    GUN 


WHAT  OF   THE   FUTURE?  285 

grievances,  and  here  again  public  opinion  shows 
itself.  In  London  there  is  a  Russia  Society,  the 
chief  function  of  which  is  to  provide  enlightenment 
to  English  people  of  things  as  they  actually  are  in 
Russia,  and  to  scotch  popular  errors.  In  Moscow 
there  is  an  English  Society,  and  its  aim  is  to  boom 
English  institutions  ;  so  there  are  not  a  few  men  in 
Russia  who  believe  that  under  the  guise  of  inter- 
national friendship  its  real  aim  is  political  propaganda. 
Anyway,  I  am  right  in  saying  there  is  a  general 
conviction  that  with  the  settling  down  after  the  war 
there  must  be  immense  changes  in  the  method  of 
government.  I  have  run  across  strata  of  opinion. 
"  If  Russia  loses  there  will  be  revolution  and  a 
Republic  be  set  up,"  and  "  If  Russia  wins  there  will 
still  be  a  revolution  if  the  old  state  of  affairs  be 
reinforced."  Appreciating  the  volatile  nature  of 
the  Slav,  I  venture  to  say  there  will  be  no  such  un- 
fortunate consequence.  Firstly,  Russia  is  not  going 
to  lose.  Secondly,  Russia,  like  the  rest  of  the  world, 
will  adapt  herself,  not  frantically,  but  gradually  to 
new  conditions.  The  close  alliance  with  France 
and  Britain  will  count  for  a  great  deal.  Russians 
are  not  braggarts.  They  know  that  in  innumerable 
respects  they  lag  far  behind  other  countries.  They 
are  their  own  most  severe  critics.  They  feel  there 
is  much  way  to  be  made  up,  and  running  right 
through  the  people  is  a  determination  to  seize  their 
opportunities  and  advance  Russia  to  the  place 
she  ought  to  occupy  amongst  the  nations  of  the 
world. 


286  RUSSIA   OF   TO-DAY 

Her  closest  students  understand  the  tremendous 
latent  abilities  there  are  in  the  people,  and  where- 
ever  they  have  been  well-directed,  there  is  as  much 
competence  as  elsewhere.  Modern  Russia's  present 
ideas  outrun  her  capabilities.  But  if  men  of  energy 
arise,  men  who  know  what  is  needed  and  work 
zealously  toward  its  attainment,  men  wrho  have 
the  strong  will,  which  is  a  necessity  to  reform,  Russia 
is  going  to  make  enormous  progress  within  the  next 
decade. 

Hitherto  Russia's  leaders  have  been  idealists,  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  much  for  their  ideals.  It  is  splendid 
that  Russians  should  have  ideals  ;  but  the  glory  must 
not  blind  them  to  the  practicalities  of  everyday  life. 
And  it  is  along  this  course  that  Russia  is  likely  to 
direct  her  steps.  The  business  men  of  Russia  have 
in  the  main  kept  away  from  politics  and  have  left  them 
to  the  theorists.  But  the  war  has  brought  business 
men  into  the  arena  of  practical,  commercial,  bread- 
and-butter  politics.  The  Government  has  turned 
to  them  for  assistance,  and  not  in  vain.  There  is 
public  spirit  in  Russia — even  when  you  have  reckoned 
at  the  worst  the  peculations  of  officials — which 
indicates  a  desire  at  any  rate  to  run  things  cleanly  and 
honourably.  The  force  of  public  opinion  is  toward 
breaking  down  the  system  whereby  men  have  to 
be  bribed  to  do  their  duty.  The  war  has  mentally 
sobered  Russia.  When  Russia  comes  to  ask  herself 
in  peace  times  :  "  Where  are  we  going  ?  "  it  is  likely 
that  ear  will  not  be  given  to  those  who  would  produce 
the  millennium  by  convulsion,  but  to  those  steady 


WHAT   OF   THE    FUTURE?          287 

voices  which  will  counsel  moderation  so  long  as  the 
nation  is  not  stagnant  but  moving. 

I  write  as  an  outsider,  and  I  make  no  claim  that 
my  opinions  are  worth  any  more  than  those  of  a  man 
who  has  taken  a  long  and  friendly  interest  in  Russia, 
and  who,  just  because  he  is  an  outsider,  one  who 
watches  and  weighs,  may  perhaps  have  a  better 
view  of  the  changes  in  the  picture  than  those  who 
are  part  of  it.  It  is  a  commonplace  amongst  British 
people  that  in  our  relationship  to  each  other  we 
will  never  be  able  to  return  to  the  same  conditions 
which  prevailed  in  times  before  the  war.  We  are 
too  enthralled  by  mighty  issues  to  realise  how  we  have 
changed  as  a  nation,  how  old  distinctions  have  dis- 
appeared, how  we  are  looking  at  things  less  from 
a  class  point  of  view  and  more  from  the  national 
aspect.  Some  of  us  will  rub  our  eyes  when  we  take 
stock,  but  we  will  not  want  to  go  back.  The  same 
thing  is  happening  in  Russia. 

The  fear  that  the  autocracy  will  insist  on  a 
renewal  of  the  ante-war  conditions  should  be  dis- 
missed. No  man  in  Russia  is  more  ardent  than  the 
Czar  himself  that  the  country  should  advance  along 
Western  industrial  lines,  whilst  retaining  its  own 
Slavonic  characteristics.  The  improvements  which 
have  been  effected  within  my  time  are  astonishing. 
The  work  of  the  Zemstvos  has  been  remarkable. 
But  there  has  always  been  a  lingering  fear  at  the 
back  of  the  powers  that  be  that  if  Russia  were 
"  given  its  head "  the  reins  would  be  seized  by 
emotional  idealists  and  the  land  would  scamper  to 


288  RUSSIA    OF   TO-DAY 

destruction.  In  many  ways  Russians  are  like 
children,  and  one  of  the  reasons  is,  because  they 
have  been  treated  as  children.  The  war  has,  how- 
ever, raised  into  sight  the  stern,  unflinching,  patriotic 
manhood  of  the  race.  The  Government  has  put  its 
confidence  in  the  people,  and  the  people,  instead  of 
rising  in  rebellion,  as  was  prophesied,  have  stood  by 
the  Government,  yet  all  the  time  frankly  critical  of 
Ministers  who  failed  in  their  responsibility. 

We  know  that  the  friendship  between  Russia  and 
her  Allies,  cemented  by  the  blood  of  their  brave, 
will  continue.  We  know  that  one  of  the  conse- 
quences will  be  the  brushing  aside  of  many  popular 
errors  about  Russia  in  the  minds  of  Frenchmen  and 
Englishmen.  Englishmen,  however,  would  not  be 
satisfied  if,  as  the  outcome  of  the  war,  the  internal 
affairs  of  Russia  were  not  improved — not  that  it 
is  their  business  to  interfere  with  the  domestic 
arrangements  of  another  household,  but  because  they 
can  only  remain  in  close  friendship  with  the  members 
of  another  household  when  they  have  interests  and 
ambitions  in  common.  England  will  not  presume 
to  dictate  ;  but  England  will  expect.  And  I  have 
judged  the  drift  of  events  all  askew  if  England  and 
the  other  Western  nations  are  disappointed.  I  do 
not  anticipate  heroic  reforms — the  Russian  people 
are  in  no  way  ripe  for  heroic  reforms — but  I  do  antici- 
pate a  closer  and  developing  relationship  between  the 
Government  and  the  nation,  a  greater  confidence  by 
the  Government  in  the  nation,  a  wider  spread  of  edu- 
cational facilities,  a  greater  freedom  in  criticism,  even 


WHAT    OF    THE    FUTURE?  289 

foolish  criticism,  for  criticism  by  a  nation  is  always 
healthy  and  sound,  and  a  gradual  training  of  the 
masses  to  bear  their  share  of  responsibility,  for  with 
responsibility  comes  caution. 

The  day  may  be  far  distant  when  the  Russians, 
under  a  constitutional  administration,  can  exclaim 
"  We  are  the  State."  But  the  sure  way  to  make  a 
nation  happy  and  prosperous  is  for  those  at  the  head 
of  affairs  to  have  a  warm  confidence  that  the  soul 
and  the  heart  of  the  people  are  right.  For  then  their 
actions  will  not  go  astray. 


INDEX 


AGRICULTURAL  co  -  operative 
movement,  the,  108,  192 

AGRICULTURIST,  the  Russian 
moudjik  as,  267 

ALIEN  Russians,  119 

ALOUSHTA,  224 

AMBULANCE  trains,  141-2 

AMERICA  and  Russian  trade,  45 

ANILINE  dyes,  72 

ARCHANGEL,  159 

ARMENIANS,  the,  129 

ARROW  Club,  the,  91 

ART,  Russian,  253 

Artelschik,  the  Russian,  59 

ASTRAKAN,  130 

AUSTRIANS  in  Moscow,  136 

BAKU,  the  Oil-fields  of,  278 

BALACLAVA,  224 

BALLET  in  Russia,  the,  212,  231, 

258 
BALTIC  Province,  the,  Germans 

in,  118 

BANKS  and  banking,  Russian,  56 
BAPTISM  of  foundlings,  the,  209 
BARCK,  M.,  40 
BASHKIRS,  the,  132 
BASHKIRTSEFF,  Marie,  238 
BEEF,  scarcity  of,  22 
BEGGARS  in  Russia,  81,  269 
BERLIN,      Schimmelpfeng's     in- 
formation bureau  in,  74,  79 
BESSARABIA,  128,  249 
Bezpopovtsy,  the,  245 
BILLS  and  bill  discounting,  58, 

99 

BOARDING  schools  in  Russia,  231 
BOATING  on  the  Neva,  90 
BOGORODSK,   a   cotton   mill   at, 
178 


BOOT  industry  in   Russia,  the, 

165 

BORDIN  Prize,  the,  238 
BOY  Scouts,  Russian,  27 
BREAD,  rye  and  white,  the  cost 

of,  188-9 
BRIBERY    in    Russia,    68,    108, 

153,  175 
BRITISH  colony  in  Moscow,  the, 

157 
BRITISH   diplomacy   in   Russia, 

168 

BURIATS,  the,  130 
BUSINESS  life  in  Russia,  94 
BUTTER  industry  of  Siberia,  the, 

191,  193,  274 

CARD-PLAYING  in  Russia,  225 
CARDS,  playing-,  a  tax  on,  205, 

225 
CATACOMBS   of   Kiev,   the,   105, 

240 

CATHERINE  II.,  204 
CAUCASUS,  the,  races  of,  129 
CHAMBERS     of     Commerce     in 

Russia,  70,  74,  76 
CHARNOCK,  Mr.  James,  179,  185, 

186 
CHEQUE    system,    the    Russian, 

57 
CHILD  mortality  in  Russia,  211, 

266,  272 
CHUNG-KING-FU,  the  •watchmen 

of,  103 

!  CIVIL  marriages  in  Russia,  216 
'  CLOTHING,  cost  of,  189 
CLUB  life  in  Russia,  225-6 
CO-EDUCATION   in   Russia,    215, 
|       229 
COMMUNISM,  105,  110,  267 


291 


INDEX 


COMPULSORY  education  in  Rus- 
sia, 228 

COMPULSORY  insurance,  185 

CONCERTS  in  Russia,  258 

CONSCRIPTION,  148 

COOKE,  Mr.  Henry,  77,  78 

CO-OPERATION  and  co-partner- 
ship, Russian,  191 

CO-OPERATIVE  stores,  Russian, 
184,  187,  193  ;  the  Union  of, 
154,  194 

CORPORAL  punishment,  prohibi- 
tion of,  229,  233 

COSSACKS,  the,  132 

COTTON  mills  of  Russia,  the, 
177,  277 

CRECHE  system,  the,  184,  189 

CREIGHTON,  General,  161 

CRIMEA,  the,  223 

CURIE,  Madame,  238 

DAIRYING  in  Siberia,  191,  193, 

274 
DANILOVSKY  cotton  mills,  the, 

178 

DASHKOFF,  Princess,  238 
Dalchas  of  Russia,  the,  222 
DICKENS,   Charles,   his   Russian 

admirers,  250 
DIFFERENTIAL  tariffs,  71 
DMITRIEFF,  Valentine,  238 
DON  Cossacks,  the,  135 
DORPAT,  the  University  of,  227, 

235 

DOSTOYEVSKY,  250,  251 
DROSHKI  drivers  in  Russia,  85 

EDUCATION  in  Russia,  227 
EGG-CUPS,  lack  of,  in  Russia,  221 
ELECTRIC  light  in  Russia,  the. 

150,  222 
EMPLOYERS      and      employed, 

Russian,  195 

ENGLISH,  the,  as  foremen,  183  ; 
clubs,  162 ;    governesses,  231 ; 
in    Moscow,    157 ;    inter-mar- 
riage with  Russians,  160 
ERIVAN,  the  Armenians  of,  129 

FALCONET,  4 

FAMILY  life  in  Russia,  88 


"  FAVOURED  nation  clause,"  the, 

46,  71 
FINLAND,    125  ;     the    language 

question  in,  126 
FINNS,  the,  119,  125-6 
FLAG  days  in  Russia,  24,  163 
"  FLAGELLANTS,"  the,  248 
FLETCHER,  Mr.  Giles,  34 
FLOUR  mills,  Russian,  279 
FOOTBALL  in  Russia,  186 
FOUNDLING  Hospital  of  Moscow, 

the,  204 

FRANCE,  her  commercial  inter- 
ests, 45 
FREE  education  in  cotton  mills, 

182,  184 

"  FREE  Gymnasia  "  schools,  230 
FURNITURE,  Russian,  200 

GERMAN  language,  the  prohibi- 
tion of,  8,  20,  51,  64,  148,  172, 
173,  174 

GERMAN  prisoners  of  war,  142 

GERMANS  in  Russia,  123,  136 

GERMANY  and  Russian  trade, 
45,  56,  72,  122 

GOGOL,  116,  250 

GOLD  mines,  Russian,  278 

GORKI,  250 

Gorod,  definition  of,  107 

GOURZOF,  223 

GRAMMAR  schools,  the  Russian 
equivalent  for,  230 

GRAND  opera  in  Russia,  256 

"  GRAPE-CURE  "  at  Aloushta, 
the,  224 

GREAT  Russian,  the,  263 

GREAT  War,  the,  Jews  as  com- 
batants, 122 

GREEK  Church,  the,  26,  27, 
112,  144,  208,  241 

GRODNO,  128 

GYMNASIA,  the,  230 

GYPSY  music  in  Russia,  257 

HAND-SHAKING  in  Russia,  87 
HARVEST  time  in  Russia,  270 
HATPINS,  Russian,  169 
HELSINGFORS,  126 
HOLY  Saturday,  the  blessing  of 
food,  243 


INDEX 


293 


HOLY  Sjmod,  the,  constitution 

of,  241 

HOME  manufactures,  196,  265 
"  HOME  of  the  Free  Child,"  the, 

Moscow,  230 

HOOLIGANISM  in  Moscow,  137 
HORSE-RACING  in  Russia,  225 
HOSPITALS,  13,  153,  184,  204 
HOUSE  rent  in  Russia,  167 
HUSBAND  poisoning,  264 

IBSEN,  256 

IKONS,  197,  201,  244,  254 
IMPERIAL  Opera  House,  the,  257 
"  INTELLECTUALS  "    of    Russia, 

the,  215 

Intelligentzia,  the,  215 
IRONWORKS  in  Russia,  165,  278 

JAPANESE  army  corps,  a  ficti- 
tious, 171-2 

JARINTZOFF,  Madame,  230,  232 

JERUSALEM,  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  105 

JEWS  in  Russia,  the,  23,  61, 
84,  120,  128,  155,  192,  230 

"  JUMPERS,"  the,  248-9 

KALMUCKS,  the,  130 

Kazaki,  the.     (See  Cossacks) 

KAZAN,  the  church,  26  ;  the 
Tartar  quarter  of,  131  ;  Uni- 
versity of,  227 

KHARKOV,  the  University  of,  227 

Khlystg,  the  ("  Flagellants  "), 
248 

KIEV,  the  catacombs,  105,  240 ; 
Cathedral,  255  ;  University, 
227 

KINEMA  shows  in  Petrogad,  92 

KIRGHIS,  the,  130 

KOURSK,  201 

Koustari.  (See  Peasant  life  and 
industries) 

KOVALEVSKY,  Sophia,  238 

KREMLIN,  the,  3,  143,  169 

KRYLOV,  the  Russian  ^Esop,  251 

KVASS,  29,  33-4 

LABOUR  conditions  of  textile 
workers,  188 


LACE,    home    manufacture    of, 

197,  201 

LAND  question,  the,  110,  192 
LEATHER,  Russian,  276 
LETTS,  the,  127 
LITERATURE,  Russian,  250 
LITHUANIANS,  the,  128 
LITTLE  Russian,  the,  263 
LONDON  Chamber  of  Commerce, 

the,  45,  53 

LUTHERANS  in  Finland,  242 
LYING-IN    hospital   of    Moscow, 

the,  206 

MANCHESTER  of  Russia,  the. 
(See  Moscow) 

MARIE,  Empress,  231 

MARKOVITCH,  Marie,  238 

MARRIAGE  in  Russia,  216 

MELINE,  M.,  45 

METHYLATED  spirits,  33 

MILLENARIANS,  the,  246 

MINSK,  128 

Mir,  the  (village  commune),  105, 
110,  191,  267,  273 

MOHAMMEDAN  College  at  Ufa, 
the,  131 

MOHILEV,  128 

MOLDAVIANS,  the,  128 

Moltchalniki,  the  ("  Mutes "), 
249 

MONGOLS,  the,  102,  113 

MONTFERAND  (architect  of  St. 
Isaac's),  4 

MOROSOFF  cotton  mills,  the, 
178,  182 

MOROSOFF,  Savva,  179 

Moscow,  1,  4,  114,  136 ;  a 
funeral  in,  148  ;  architecture 
of,  169  ;  birth  and  death  rates 
of,  107  ;  business  firms  in, 
154  ;  in  different  moods, 
136  ;  its  churches,  143,  162  ; 
riots  in,  136,  137  ;  technical 
schools,  155 ;  the  Art  Gallery 
of,  254 ;  the  Artistic  Theatre  in, 
256  ;  the  Educational  Society 
of,  236  ;  the  Foundling  Hos- 
pital, 204  ;  the  Imperial 
Opera  House,  257  ;  the  Krem- 
lin, 3,  143,  169  ;  the  police 


294 


INDEX 


of,  136,   140,  175  ;  the  popu- 
lation of,  163  ;  the  streets  of, 

150  ;  the  watchmen  of,  103  ; 

trade      in      war-time,      146  ; 

wealth  of  Its  merchants,  149 
Moscow  Imperial  Trotting  Club, 

the,  225 
Moscow  Union  of  Co-operative 

Stores,  154,  194 
Moscow,    University    of,     137, 

227,  235,  236 
MOSLEM  mosque  in   Petrograd, 

a,  90 
MOUDJIK,    the,    81,    177,    192, 

261,  264 
"  MUD-CURE  "  at  Balaclava,  the, 

224 
MUSCOVITE       Tariff        Reform 

League,  a,  164 
"  MUTES  "    of   Bessarabia,   the, 

249 
MYSTICISM  in  Russia,  116,  252 

NARSAN,  29 

NATIONALISTS,  the.     (See  Slavo- 
phils) 
NEVA,  the,  blessing  of  the  waters, 

243  ;  boating  on,  90 
NEWSPAPERS     of    Russia,     the, 

123,  253 

NICHOLAS  II.,  Tsar,  33 
NICHOLAS  Military  Hospital,  the, 

238 

NICHOLAS,  the  Grand  Duke,  283 
NIJNI-NOVGOROD,  the   Zemstvo 

of,  202 

NOBILITY  of  Russia,  the,  213 
NOMADISM  of  Russia,  the,  102 
NON-PRAY-ERS,  the,  249 
NOVO-NIKOLAYEVSK,  278 

OBI.     (See  Novo-Nikolayevsk) 
ODESSA,  76  ;  University  of,  227, 

235 

Odnodvortsg,  the,  214 
OFFICERS'  Stores  (Moscow),  the, 

154 

OIL  fields  at  Baku,  278 
"  OLD  Ritualists,"  the,  242 
OMSK,  the  butter  industry,  191, 

274 


"  ONE-ESTATE  man,"  the,  214 

OPERA,  Russian,  State  aid  for, 
257 

ORECHOVO-ZOUEVO,  a  cotton 
mill  at,  177  ;  average  work- 
ing dav,  187  ;  co-operative 
stores,  187  ;  football  club,  186 

ORIENTALISM  in  Russia,  108,  120 

ORLOV,  Count,  225 

PASSPORTS  for  married  women, 
207 

PEASANT  life  and  industries, 
196,  265 

PEOPLE'S  University,  the.  (See 
Shaniasky) 

PEREJOSLAVSIVA,  Mile.,  238 

PERM,  the  Zemstvo  of,  202 

PERSIANS,  the,  129 

PETER  the  Great,  113,  123,  124, 
159,  214 

PETERHOF,  its  builder,  2 

PETROGRAD,  1,  4, 123  ;  a  German 
daily  paper  in,  123  ;  a  Sunday 
in,  80  ;  at  church,  81 ;  founder 
of,  113,  123,124,159,  214;  in 
war-time,  17  ;  Kazan  church, 
26 ;  Medical  Academy  at, 
235  ;  St.  Isaac's,  4,  80  ;  the 
Nevski,  17,  262  ;  the  railway, 
4 ;  the  Zoological  Gardens,  224 

PHOTOGRAPHS  under  difficulties, 
174 

PLAYING-CARDS,  a  tax  on,  205, 
225 

POLAND,  124,  125 

POLES,  the,  119  ;  and  the  Ger- 
man occupation  of  Poland, 
125 

POLICE,  Russian,  136,  140,  175 

PRIMOGENITURE  unknown  in 
Russia,  213 

PUSHKIN,  116,  251 

RADIUM,  the  discoverer  of,  238 
RAILWAYS  in  Russia,  85,  88, 104, 

106,  156,  220 

Raskolniks,  the,  242-3,  245 
RED  Cross,  the  Russian,  14 
RESTAURANT  of  Amalgamated 

Waiters,  the,  87 


INDEX 


295 


ROMAN  Catholics  in  Poland,  242 
ROUGE-POT  in  Russia,  the,  268 

RUBENSTEIN,    257 

RURAL  banks,  192 

RUSSIA,  a  country  -without  dia- 
lects, 106  ;  a  land  of  many 
religions,  240  ;  and  her 
future,  281  ;  bribery  in,  68, 
108,  153,  175  ;  caste  system 
in,  67  ;  commercial  banks  in, 
62 ;  co-operative  stores  in, 
154,  182,  187,  193  ;  country 
towns  of,  220  ;  datchas  of, 
222  ;  education  in,  227  ;  ex- 
ports and  imports  of,  278  ; 
forests  of,  272,  275  ;  her 
foreign  trade,  52  ;  her  poten- 
tialities, 272  ;  hospitals  in, 
13,  153,  184,  204  ;  intel- 
lectual and  artistic,  250  ; 
Jews  in,  23,  61,  84,  120, 
128,  155,  192,  230;  mileage 
of,  118;  mobilisation  of,  36; 
night  watchmen  of,  103 ; 
officialdom  in,  5,  154  ;  paucity 
of  towns  in,  107,  220  ;  plains 
of,  272  ;  population  of,  118  ; 
priesthood  of,  241  ;  savings- 
banks  of,  43  ;  teetotalism  in, 
13,  29,  32;  the  aliens  of, 
119  •  the  fight  for  trade  in, 
44  ;  the  man  on  the  land, 
260  ;  the  merchant  class, 
214  ;  the  nobility  of,  213  ;  the 
"  one-estate  man,"  214  ;  the 
Orthodox  Church  in,  26,  27, 
112,  144,  208,  241  ;  trade 
unions  prohibited  in,  152,  195; 
universities  of,  227  ;  winters 
of,  196  ;  216 

RUSSIAN  business  man,  the,  94  ; 
calendar,  101  ;  chambers  of 
commerce,  70,  74,  76  ;  com- 
merce, 49  ;  market  and  Ger- 
many, 56;  mills,  189;  peas- 
ant class,  196,  265  ;  pilgrims, 
105  ;  restaurants,  87  ;  State 
Bank,  the,  56 

RUSSIANS,  the,  7,  56,  64,  98, 
102,  109,  281,  et  passim 

RYE-BREAD,  cost  of,  188 


ST.  ANDREW'S  Church,  Moscow, 

162 

ST.  ISAAC'S,  Petrograd,  4,  80 
SCHIMMELPFENG'S      information 

bureau,  Berlin,  74,  79 
SEBASTOPOL,  the  biological  sta- 
tion at,  238 
SECONDARY  schools   in   Russia, 

230 
SERFS,  the  emancipation  of,  104, 

214 
SHANIASKY'S     University,     195, 

236 

SHERMETIEFF,  Count,  258 
SHEVCHENKO,  251 
SIBERIA,  103,  105,  272 
SIBERIAN  butter  industry,  the, 

191,  193,  274 

Skakuny,  the  ("  Jumpers  "),  248 
Skoptsy,  the  ("  White  Doves  "), 

249 
SLAV    temperament,    the,    114, 

116 

SLAVOPHILS,  the,  114 
SMOLENSKY  School,  the,  237 
SNODGRASS,  Mr.  John  H.,  275 
SOCIAL  life  in  Russia,  213 
SOUP,  a  speciality  in  Russia,  84 
SPICER,  Sir  Albert,  279 
STAGE,  the,  in  Russia,  255 
STATE  as  landowner,  the,  273 
STATE  pawnshops,  205  ;  schools, 

228,  231 

STOVES,  Russian,  216,  266 
Strannik,  the,  247 
SUICIDE,  the  cult  of,  117,  245 
SUMMER  theatre,  a,  185,  256 
SUNDAY  bathing  in  Russia,  91 

TABLE  manners  in  Russia,  89 
TARIFF  wars  in  Russia,  72 
TARTARS,  the,  130 
TATIANA,    the    Grand    Duchess, 

14 
TCHAIKOVSKY,  256 

TCHEKOFF,    250 

Tchotte,  the  Russian,  95,  103 
TEETOTALISM  in  Russia,  13,  29, 

32 
TELEPHONE  service  of  Moscow, 

the,  150,  170 


296 


INDEX 


TEXTILE     industries,     Russian, 

165,  177,  200 
TGLITZKI,  235 

THEATRE  in  Russia,  the,  255 
TIFLIS,  129 

TIMBER  trade,  the  Russian,  275 
TIMIRIAZEFF,  Mr.,  70 
TOLSTOI,  250 

TOMSK,  the  University  of,  227 
TRADE  unions  prohibited,   152, 

195 
"  TRAMPS  "  or  "  Runners,"  the, 

246 
TRAMWAY  system  of  Petrograd, 

the,  100 
"  TRUE         Russian         People's 

Union,"  the,  235 
TSARKOE  Selo,  41,  107 
TSEBRIKOFF,  Marie,  238 
TURGENEV,  3,  253 
TVER,  a  cotton  mill  at,  178,  179  ; 

the  Zemstvo  of,  202 

UFA,  the  Mohammedan  College 

at,  131 

UKRAINE,  the,  263 
UNION   of   Co-operative   Stores, 

the,  154,  194, 
UNIVERSITIES,  Russian,  227 

VARIETY    entertainments,    Rus- 
sian, 258 

VASNETZOV,  Victor,  255 
VEDENSKY,  M.,  250 


VILLAGE  commune  schools,  105, 
110,  191,  229,  267,  273 

VILNA,  128 

VITEBSK,  128 

VLADIMIR,  177,  201  ;  birth-rate 
in,  185 

VODKA,  manufacture  of,  38  ; 
prohibition  of,  13,  29,  32 

WARSAW,  76 ;  the  University  of, 

227 

WESTERNS  of  Russia,  the,  114 
WHEAT  area,  the  Russian,  191, 

278 

WHEELER,  Mr.  Post,  252 
"  WHITE  Doves,"  the,  249 
WHITE  Russian,  the,  262 
WILLOUGHBY,  Sir  Hugh,  159 
WOMEN  doctors,  153,  184 
WOMEN  M.P.'s  in  Finland,  126 
WOMEN'S  Medical  Academy   of 

Petrograd,  the,  236 
WOMEN'S    School    of    Medicine, 

the,  238 
WOODEN     houses,     218,     261  ; 

ploughs,  267  ;  spoons,  200 
WORKMEN'S  Compensation  Act, 

the,  153 

YALTA,  223 

YAROSLAV  and  the  Germans,  123 
YUSHIEVITCH       (Jewish       play- 
wright), 256 


VENTILATION,     inattention     to,  i 

88,  181,  210,  216  ZAPADNIKI,  the,  114 

VIGOUL  Morosoff  and  Sons,  179,  ZEMSTVOS,   the,   202,   229,   267, 

182  273 


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